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So I'm about 4-5 hours into this, and so far it has been nothing less than phenomenal. It's a sequel to 2019's Jedi Order and takes place 5 years after the events of that game, again with Protagonist Cal Kestis (motion captured by Gotham's Cameron Monaghan), this time a lot more attuned to his Jedi powers, a little more dishevelled and world-weary but nonetheless determined to expunge the Empire from the Galaxy bit-by-bit, using his Jedi powers in tandem with small groups of misfits around the galaxy to do so. As this is a sequel, it plays very similarly to Jedi Order. You pilot Cal, his lightsaber(s), wield the force and explore different planets around the Galaxy in way reminiscent of a Souls-like and something like GoW/Tomb Raider 2013, you're able to go round different paths only to come to a dead end that will have a shortcut nearby it which will lead you back to a Mediation point (this games' Bonfires), you'll also encounter areas and paths that are inaccessible to you on your first visit, you'll have to return to these later once you have the required power and unlock the path. There's a lot of games like this nowadays, particularly open world third-person adventure games, so it's likely you've played one similar at some point, pretty much everything is back from Fallen Order, the way the game plays mentioned above, the platforming, certain set pieces, certain slidey bits you drop down into before/after/during said set pieces, you'll be lightsabering a lot of Troopers and wildlife, solving puzzles and collecting trinkets. There is a grappling hook of sorts this time around I don't remember being in FO, there are also stances that enable you to dual-wield, double-end or just have the standard saber setup. You can now customise Cal to the Nth degree (apart from changing his hair colour), including his Beard, Clothes and Hairstyle, along with his Saber (oo err) and your trusty Droid BD-1 who, again, returns from FO. So far I've explored two planets. The game itself starts off in the dingy underbelly of Coruscant, which is every bit as amazing as you think it's going to be, Neon signs everywhere, cyberpunk vibes out the wazoo, flying cars whizzing about all over the place, gaudy electric billboards and all the trappings you'd expect from this City Planet if you've seen the films. This planet is quite linear, you pretty much have your objectives and can still go off into mini-exploration zones which usually circle back and where you first started exploring from, but a lot of it is locked off for the time being, giving you a streamlined approach to the objective at the levels finale. Koboh is the second planet I've been exploring and is absolutely bloody massive. It's a Wild West feeling Frontier planet (complete with the accents!) which seems to just go on and on for miles from the vistas I've found so far. It's rocky but with plenty of beauty and charm, lots of interesting wildlife and interesting flora and fauna to look at and admire, I thought Coruscant was a visual spectacle but some of the vistas in this have been absolutely mindboggling. Compared to Coruscant which felt like a Planet you'd visit, this seems to be the Bogano of Survivor, the hub planet, with loads of different paths possible for you to take, loads of NPCs to speak to, shops to peruse and lots of mini-games and activities you can partake in Whilst I very much enjoyed the previous game, it did have lots of niggling technical issues that would eat away at your enjoyment from time to time, it just never really felt polished. You'll manoevre Cal onto a bit of pipe and he'd randomly do a Tee pose, there would be silly little bugs frequently enough that you'd notice them and kind of roll your eyes but never really annoyed or frustrated, that kind of stuff. But here, thankfully, all that has seemingly been eliminated, in my eyes at least, as everything feels so incredibly polished and buttery smooth, as alluded to above the game is a visual spectacle, it looks absolutely bonkers at times, particularly on my TV. I'm playing in Quality Mode on PS5 for reference. If on PC though, it might be best to wait a couple of weeks for a patch, because, much like most big recent PC releases that version has been borked - which is a shame and not acceptable - but if on XSX on PS5, this would get a strong recommendation from me already, particularly if you're into Star Wars and/or similar third person adventure metroidvania/souls-like type games. Pics:

I'm surprised there's no thread for this. Ghostwire: Tokyo is an open world first person action adventure game. Obviously set in Tokyo, I think all in the Shibuya region. It means that it's not so oversized and it's a relatively interesting place to explore and pretty detailed. It's nice. Some kind of supernatural event has happened which has "killed" everyone but one of the things you do is harvest souls of the population to keep them safe while this event gets sorted out. But anyone who is roaming the streets are ghostly figures who need to be busted. You do this with elemental spells that have a number of different properties and are fun to use. "Ammo" for the spells is pretty limited and you can only carry so much but you can get a little amount back from enemies. It does mean extended fights require you to switch it up and try to use optimally. There are some stealth mechanics as well that help thin out a group if you can manage being a bit sneaky. This part of the game is pretty well done. You're able to do this stuff because you are possessed by the ghost of a guy who's history is kept secret so far. He does have knowledge of the supernatural and how to fight it so you share your body with him to help bust some ghosts. He's pretty entertaining in a gruff way as well so he's good company. Tokyo is really well realised, it looks great and the various ghosts, yokai and ghouls are really well designed so it has a unique look. Exploring is well rewarded but its weakest part is probably when you go high to the rooftops and the jumping around isn't great. You have a glide ability but what you can grab onto and mount is hard to judge and jankily implemented. It is the time the game looks and feels a bit rough. I've been enjoying it quite a lot so far. Unless it all goes wrong I'm happy to certify it a Cool Game.

So after, what? 9 or 10 years Dead Island 2 is finally here and you know what?... I'm having a pretty decent time with it. The first thing I'll say is it feels like an Xbox 360 game... and it's a matter of opinion if that's a good or a bad thing. For me after Dying Light 2 tried to do far too much (in my opinion) having a game that just wants me to hit things until they fall over in a bloody mess is more than OK. The other thing I wanted to say is the opening hour or so is pretty bad... shit weapons that break way too easy and spongy enemies that hit way too hard... or maybe that's my own fault for picking the poor, frail girl character... who knows... anyway things liven up when you get your first real mission and access to a workbench. Anyone who's played the original games (or the Dying Light games) will feel right at home with the modding of weapons and such, electric swords and and flaming golf clubs... all that good stuff. The flesh system is really cool, thwacking a zombie in the face and seeing its jaw dislocate and detach is pretty mind-blowing and adds a lot to the melee combat (not found any guns yet) The other cool thing us being able to use liquids... I was doing a side mission and reached a part where ther was about 10 zombies banging on glass doors trying to get in... noticed a fuel can and explosive canister, picked up the can and poured fuel the entire length of the doors, hit the canister which ignited the fuel and blew out a window which allowed the zombies to walk straight in to my pre-made Inferno... no more zombies.😂 I've also just picked a perk for a pipe bomb... which is hilarious. Anyway, I like this game, admittedly I've only put around 5 or 6 hours in so far so we'll have to see if it can hold my attention but it's off to a good start.

So, this is the new game from the Civ and XCOM developers, Firaxis. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, it is a turn-based game. It's safe to say it's more closely aligned to XCOM than Civ though, but this has an ace (or many aces to be exact) up its sleeve that differentiates it from just being a Marvel XCOM game, and that's the largely divisive (from Previews) inclusion of Cards into the combat. As a result of the cards coming into play, the game isn't as rigid or locked into a grid like it is in XCOM, you're free to move somewhere within the little combat arena you're placed in once per turn, with certain placements being preferable, scoring knockbacks or environmental attacks. You can draw three cards per turn, but certain cards do get refunded as they're used up, giving you an additional card or two per turn, you can also redraw any card you're not happy with twice per turn. A lot of the cards so far are quite basic, in that they are 'standard' kind of slash/punch kind of moves, but they do come with additional benefits like knockbacks, chain attacks, inflicting bleed damage and the ilk, on top of these you've got ability cards which gives you and your team buffs as you fight and hero cards which are much more powerful and usually allow you to take out multiple enemies at a time, the kicker being that you need 'heroism' to use them, which is gained by taking out enemies. The enemies themselves have been fairly standard grunts for the most part, if you imagine the basic super soldiers from XCOM, then it's pretty much the same here, just they're now Hydra Soldiers. The bosses have been more interesting as they're now various Marvel villains instead of snake-creatures or something like they were in the XCOM titles. As established in the paragraphs above, the game shares a lot of DNA with XCOM, and that's no bad thing, the animations, certain effects you can pull of like the knockbacks mentioned earlier and the environmental attacks all look and feel very similar to XCOM but they've now got a more grandiose superhero sheen on them. You'll head out on missions from the 'war room' with yourself ('The Hunter') and two other heroes chosen at random to assist you. You'll about your task, fight a boss or retrieve an item at the end of it and then return back to your base. It's in this base segment of the game where you can see where Firaxis has been far more ambitious than their previous title. In XCOM, the base was an important part of the game where you'd build new sections, invest research points into them to help bolster certain specialisations, new weapons and all that good stuff. All of this DNA is contained within the 'Abbey' in this game, which is a huge Cathedral with sprawling grounds for you to explore to your hearts content, you explore this in 3D in your role as the Hunter, gone are the days of a 2D plain, seeing all your little soldiers move into their newly built wing. It's super impressive and such a great feeling 'base' right away that really makes you feel at home, all the segments you'd expect to be there are in their place but there's also tons of secrets to explore and a sprawling grounds containing blocked passageways which will likely reveal themselves to me later on. The Abbey has the feel of the School in Fire Emblem Three Houses or the Normandy in Mass Effect to it. This also takes inspiration from those titles in the new social links system, where you can sit down and hang out around the Abbey with your new team mates as you assimilate and get used to your new surroundings, doing so gets you friendship points which levels up your bond with your squad mates as the game goes on. I'm not too far into the game but I assume the more it goes on the more activities around the Abbey get unlocked and some of the more mysterious bits and pieces I've seen so far unveil themselves. The Abbey is the most ambitious element of the game and is almost a game unto itself, it makes me realise why it got delayed a few times. So yeah, I've loved my time with it so far (probably about 4-5 hours) and can't wait to play more, it's a real breath of fresh air compared to some of the other stuff I've played lately. To be continued and pics added.

I put an umlaut in the thread title 🪓 Quick thread post to say like some others I imagine I stayed up a bit last night to check out the intro to this. Very familiar, almost expansion like in how familiar it is. But as someone who's several GOTYs are FFXIV expansions I don't really consider that a huge negative, but it is noticeable coming into this from 2018. It's like changing a disc, if this was an older PSX rpg. It's neat tho, it has that IMAX level presentation to its cinematic fights. Dialogue between characters is maximalist in every degree. Every mythical character is super expressive and drawn like a caricature out of a HBO mob drama, or a scenery-chewing performance from a Tarantino film, which I'm way into. I like the contemporary treatment of it all. I mainly want to ask the question here tho to the 120hz VRR users, what settings are you rolling with? I messed around with quality performance last night and I feel the fps wasn't quite as smooth as I'd liked (I don't know if it is the 40fps or not) and the resolution was very soft looking to me. The visuals aren't quite where I'd expect them to be. If that is the case I might just stick with quality and 30fps. For a game that's as deliberate and slow in its movement as this I think I can get by with that, it worked fine in 2018. But slightly foggy and soft visuals would spoil a lot more of what's going on here, imo.

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

The Demo is out now, possibly the first of two if past Resident Evil games are anything to go off. Based on the demo it's pretty faithful to how the original starts, playing up to the village fight before it ends. The opening moments are expanded and they've developed the combat a little. you can stealth a little now, the knife is a button press, there's opportunities to shoot then melee in a more deliberate way than it felt in the original. There's dodging and parrying, and when enemies are downed you can finish them off, which you need to do and I've had a couple change on me even this early in the game (this could be a demo thing) There are a few changes, as said there's a expanded start with some more story telling played out, and some subversion of what you expect, which runs throughout the demo My only issues so far, I don't like the aiming. I think by design it's easy to miss, but I'm not really a fan of how easy it is to miss even when you aren't being rushed. I'm also not a huge fan of how it looks. That might be a common thing with the engine, assuming this is the same as the RE2 remake, because I thought that could look a little rough at points. I've played the performance mode, and it has loads of ghosting when you turn the camera, whenever there's movement, and just at certain points on any fine detail, so I'm not sure what reconstruction they're using but it's not working great (playing on PS5). I might have another run on the graphics mode to see, then I might even download the PC version

Heretics Defeated! So far, very good. Only got in an hour today (for now) but I'm enjoying everything about this. From the "Happy Tree Friends" aesthetic. To the distinctly Isaac/Gungeon feel to the combat. The cult building aspect so far is the newest gameplay to me and the most intriguing. It reminds me of both Freedom Fighters and the base building of Suikoden. I have fought one boss and indoctrinated three followers into my Cult. While grinning from ear to ear at the presentation.

This is a massive WRPG based on the Harry Potter book/film series from the early to late 2000s. Potter, Malfoy, Hermione, Ron, Neville & Co. aren't in this though as it is set in the late 1800s, so it's set in the same world and there are certainly plenty of references to the books/films, certain character names etc. and some fan service in terms of locations you'll visit (particularly the intro which is super cool for a Potter-fan, which I won't spoil) but it doesn't try too hard or wink metaphorically at you too much if that makes sense. You play as a new character of your choice who joins Hogwarts as a 5th year, one of the few Witches/Wizards that have done this in history. The game is set in Hogwarts itself and its surroundings, no real surprise there. Hogwarts itself is absolutely gigantic, filled with labyrinthian corridors, dungeons, classrooms with all the key locales you'll recognise from the films like the moving staircase, broom lawn, clock tower etc. everything feels exactly as it should do, everything is in its correct place from the films and just feels right. Outside of Hogwarts is a humungous world to explore based on the Scottish Highlands, with plenty of greenery, forests and undulating hills, flora and fauna, Hogsmeade is largely the shopping district where you'll get all your bits needed for your classes and adventures throughout the region, it's every bit as charming as it is in the films and an absolute delight to just walkthrough and take in all the kookiness of the wizarding world you inhabit. The two core pillars to the game, as in many games I guess, are combat and exploration. The combat is easily what has surprised me about the game the most, I think when you look at it in videos it's quite easy to dismiss as being perhaps a bit overly simplistic but in your hands it's got a lot of depth to it. There's a weight to the spell casting that isn't easy to get across on video, I don't really know how to describe it but there's a wind-up to the animation, a motion, a movement to it, it's not just firing off little bolts of whatever spell, it feels like you've actually cast it if that makes any sense at all lol. Different enemies will have a shield that corresponds with a certain spell colour (red, purple, yellow are the main combat-based spells) which you'll have to use to break their shield and ultimately defeat them. You can have up to 12 named spells in the spell wheel at any one time (need to hold R2 and press one of the face buttons to cast), these act as special spells on a cooldown meter. On top of this you've also got your regular no-name spell which you can cast at anyone at anytime by pressing R2 (or by using L2, going into a 3rd-person over the shoulder aiming mode) which you can keep firing off at enemies whilst your special spells are on a cooldown. There's a lot of different enemy types I've encountered so far. These Guardian/Statue type things I guess a little bit similar to the Gargoyles in Souls games or something (maybe?), your more standard dark witches/wizards, Ashwinders which are kind of suped up dark witches/wizards, Spiders, Wolves, Trolls, Goblins, these little furball looking things that reside in rivers/lakes (can't remember the name), so there's a lot of variety there and each have their own strengths and weaknesses for you to exploit. Combat in this game is far from easy as well, it's not anywhere near something like Souls or something like that but you do have to think about your attacks, strategies etc. quite a bit, it's not mindless button mashing in the slightest, there is some strategy involved and some threat associated whenever you enter a combat scenario. Exploration is handled a little more how you'd expect really, I absolutely hate the 'Ubisoft game' analogy as I feel it's a lazy quasi-criticism, I've played many and they're all slightly differently to one another but the closest analogy I can give to how this game handles its exploration is AC Valhalla. The landscapes are very similar on the surface of it, one being set mainly in England and this being set in the Scottish Highlands, there are these 'Merlin Trials' which are very similar to a lot of the little puzzles and glitches you see dotted around in that game. Standard kind of stuff like getting a ball from the top of a hill down into a hole, lighting three pillars before the time runs out, exploding 4 rock columns, having to lead a group of fireflies into a column to light it up, just little bits and pieces like that. There's a lot of collectibles to get, the field pages are the most plentiful of the bunch, I think Hogwarts alone has over 100 of these that you get by pressing Revelio to reveal hidden objects in the surroundings, much like the pulse mechanic in a lot of games that reveals hidden items, there's also Chests, little statues, seals to find where you'll have to lead a dragonfly-type thing to a cabinet to squash it into the hole and open it up. Nothing too ground-breaking here or anything really no one has seen before, but they all work well in harmony with one another. Again, similar to AC Valhalla there's also dungeons and caves you can enter dotted around the landscape, the infamous bandit camps where you have to clear them out and find the chest to tick them off as completed, Balloons in the sky to pop whilst flying your broom, broom time trials, mini-games with your wand you can compete with other students at Hogwarts. The game has such a fantastic atmosphere to it and is such a joy to explore, whether that's just walking around on foot or flying around on your broom, it's always visually arresting to just meander even if you don't have a set goal in mind. The attention to detail here is just absolutely staggering, there's a sweetshop in Hogsmeade and every single individual kooky wizardy type sweet is included in such an special authentic way, every aspect of the game feels extremely polished, it runs well and everything feels like it has that same attention to detail that the sweetshop has, it really is a sight to behold. Graphically, this is a current-gen showpiece, the world feels so alive and helps bring everything to life and look as magnificent as it does, the music in this game is absolutely fantastic as well and helps place you into this world. There's a few ditties in here that will sound familiar if you've seen the films but nothing is a straight up rip from the movies, everything feels unique and makes you feel like you're on your own adventure in this world, not reliving Harry's. The sound design with all the spells like 'Lumos' sounding exactly how it should from the films, is really special. Again, it just helps drive home how much attention to detail was spent in this world and getting everything right, in terms of world design and world building, it's nothing but a masterpiece. The story itself has been interesting too, I'm not too far in as I've been mostly ignoring it and doing collectibles, side quests and all that good stuff, but yeah it has been intriguing so far and I can't wait to learn more, I've only just got my broom at 22-ish hours in which is meant to be something you get within the first 3 hours, so I think I'm quite behind on this front lol. Talking of side quests, they're in here but largely unremarkable really, they're standard kind of side quests where you'll have to clear out a bandit camp to get an item or something like that, nothing out of ordinary. Occasionally you do get assignments from the various different classes at Hogwarts which will give you a couple of tasks to complete, this are usually more interesting and reward you with a nice little classroom scene once you hand it to the Professor in question. So yeah, I think it is absolutely fantastic so far. I just wish I had more time to play more of it really, it's one of the best WPRGs I've played in recent years, feels like its had an awful lot of money spent on it and is just dripping in polish and attention to detail. A must-play if you're a fan of the films/books but I think a great game (so far) in its own right and well worth playing still if you're not. Pics:

I’m a bit late to the party on this one, just got my rental copy. But I notice it’s only recently come out on Xbox, so better late than never I guess. I’ve done the first two missions so far, and it’s quite fun. You play as either a male or female kung-fu student, seeking revenge on an enemy gang. The twist is that every time you die, you get immediately resurrected, but age one year. You start off at age 20. Supposedly as you get older, you get stronger, but age too much and you get weaker. The combat seems straightforward enough so far. I’ve enjoyed smashing bottles on people’s heads, slamming them into walls. It also turns out you can attack people in mid conversation. So while enemies have been giving me exposition, I’ve dashed in and punched them in the face. Good times.

So the full game is out, I've spent the morning playing it... bear in mind I didn't play any of the demo's so the opening is all new to me. I think everyone by now everyone should be able to gather what happens in the beginning, Chris being all dark and barrel chested, anyhow you soon wake up at night, in the snow... looking for Ethans baby. To me the game looks really pretty, the lighting is really good and so far (using RT) the performance seems to be holding up nicely. I never overly liked the shooting in 7 and this seems very close, I've recently picked up an add on to my pistol and that's definitely helped... I feel much happier in these third person Resi games with a shotgun in my hands though. The start of the game is almost a bit too much, there were times I wasn't sure if I should be trying to kill all these things or running away... that's also happened a couple of times in the castle where I'm up to now. Things have calmed a bit since getting in there though and it's a gorgeous place to explore. I do wish the movement speed was a bit quicker though. So far so good then, looking forward to finding out a bit more on these freaks who are making life a tad rough for old Ethan.

Well, the reviews have not been kind to this. I’ve certainly played far worse. But in attempting to reboot the franchise, it might end up killing it stone dead. I’ve always enjoyed the Saints series. It found its footing with SR2, then went completely mental in tone, for 3 and 4. Personally, I loved it. It was over the top, ridiculous, and just a sheer joy. When the trailers for this first hit, with a new cast, concerns were raised. The devs tried to pass those off, that we needed to “wait to the final product” before judging it. Part of the hate being thrown it’s way comes down to the story being crap, and the characters being total wankers. Unfortunately, that’s a claim that’s bang on the money. I hate these fuckers already, and I’m only a few hours in. You get zero introduction in to who they are, or how you came to friends with them. It’s just “here’s this dickhead, here’s this arsehole”. Everything that comes out of their mouths is pure cringe. Johnny Gat might have been a bit much, but at least he was a laugh. At one point, Kevin whinges about never having a Happy Meal toy, so off you go on a killing spree to get some. Finishing with him saying “I only want one, let’s drop the rest off at the orphanage some day”. Sure, we can do that, while passing the funerals of the multiple people we killed along the way. Bababababa, they’re lovin’ it. Then later he even talks in hashtags. Prick. It also feels dated already. Nerdy bow tie wearing black guy, enemies wearing neon masks. Watch Dogs was doing that ages ago. Combat wise, it’s fine. Though having your melee attack be on frequent cool-down gets a bit annoying, especially when things get busy. I’ve not had the glitch that stops you from firing your guns. But I have had a couple of hard crashes while customising my character. So that was fun. The driving feels off, in as much as everything you hit just seems to fly off into the air at top speed. I drift around the streets, sideswiping everyone in my path, and nobody seems to give a shit. I’ve not had the police be even remotely bothered about me yet, other than in missions. The reviews claim it’s an open world that feels totally lifeless. They’d be right. There’s no character in the city, nothing worth parking up to take notice of. It doesn’t feel “next gen” at all, and makes you wonder what they’ve been doing since Agents Of Mayhem wrapped up. I’m glad games like Gotham Knights are sacking the PS4 off, because it’s time to properly use the PS5 hardware. Nothing has really stood out in the soundtrack thus far. Maybe it will later. I’ve had the bank holiday weekend off, and I’ve barely bothered to play this. When I do, It’s for an hour or so at best. I’ve been playing the vastly superior Cult Of The Lamb instead. Something different needed to be done by the end of SR4, it’s hard to really top going into outer space. But this doesn’t really feel like a story worth carrying on to a sequel. Fans of the series aren’t too impressed. Newcomers are left thinking “Is this it?”. Its not terrible, but it’s not great either. Just feels like a real missed opportunity. The character creator is brilliant. Just a shame you can’t use it to make a crew of Saints that aren’t colossal wankers.

This is arguably the showpiece, flagship title for PSVR2 and it hasn't failed to disappoint. Having only played two games on the system so far (this and GT7), with both being incredibly impressive in VR, I have to give this the edge as it fully utilises PSVR2's capabilities to its fullest extent, all the features like the haptics, finger tracking, impulse triggers etc. all come into play to create one super immersive environment to explore, with a Wheel and Pedals I'd imagine GT7 would be equally as impressive but seeing as I've just got the DualSense to use for that, this gets the edge ever so slightly. Coming from PSVR1 where 'standing' games were severely crippled by poor tracking, I watched on in envy as I saw numerous headsets launch with full roomscale tracking like the Vive, Index, Rift Pro etc. and whilst I can't quite achieve that myself as my living room isn't big enough, there's more than enough freedom to move about and the tracking is fantastic with this in comparison. It feels like the realisation of what I wanted PSVR1 to be all those years ago, a fully fleshed out AAA game made from the ground up for VR that fully immerses you in the experience with controls and tech that don't detract from the experience. At its heart, this is a climbing game though. I'd say 70-80% of the time you will be clambering up Mountains, man made structures, along peeks, valley's and everything in-between really. At first the climbing is quite one-note, you just climb with your hands up various surfaces but as the game goes on you unlock pickaxes which make you feel like Lara Croft in the recent Tomb Raider titles and a grappling hook-like device which enables you to swing across chasms. Imagine what the climbing sections of an Uncharted or Tomb Raider would feel like in 1st person and you've got a rough estimation of what this is like really, enemies and combat sections are in the game but they're treated as boss battles at the end of a chapter and are fleeting experiences that whilst incredibly thrilling are gone before you know it really. It's a linear experience without too many branching paths, open areas or anything like that, there are a few times where you can choose to go down the right or left path at particular sections but that's about it really, it's very much a cinematic linear type experience. There's a few collectibles to get along the way in the way of targets you can shoot with your bow that are sometimes placed in sneaky locations, puzzles with stones you can stack upon one another to eventually make a cairn and legendary mountains to climb, the latter of which seems to be mainly tied to the story. There are also lore collectibles you can get and pieces of armour to collect that when you've accumulated 4 or 5 upgrade your armour capabilities, nothing to ground-breaking there but it helps break the game up. There's also a theme park like ride where you travel along in a kayak through the rainforest whilst various monsters either clamber, fight or jump over you, it's definitely a mode you will try once and show to friends and family members to wow them as they come round but that's pretty much all it is. Another inclusion is the challenges you can do, there's an archery challenge where you can attempt to outscore Aloy's 1500 points (which I managed a few nights ago) and an assault course challenge where you have to climb, jump and shimmy your way through a course beating a certain time, I think I need to get further into the game before this fully unlocks for me, but what I have tried is good fun. So yeah, very impressive overall, I'm about 5 hours in and have to wean myself off it every night once my 90 minute session has finished. Had no issues with motion sickness or anything so far either which is great, have been using the 'comfort' setting for now as I don't want to overdo my capabilities too soon. I can see why some may be disappointed there's not more combat in it, at its heart it is a climbing game first and foremost, but for me it's still spectacular. My stream from last night: A few pics:

Fired this up last night to give it a spin before the demo times out. Safe to say I'm really impressed with it so far, didn't really want to put it down when I came to the end of my session but got dragged off the TV as the Wife said Dinner was ready. It's very much a Souls-like and there's Nioh's DNA running through it, even things like the menus, inventory, sounds when you pick things up and all that jazz are ripped straight from Nioh. It also takes a lot of inspiration from Sekiro, if you time a parry just at the right time it does a Mikhiri Counter type thing where you stab the enemy for massive damage, movement also feels similar to Sekiro in that you can jump about and dodge like a manman without really running out of stamina. There's a much faster more actiony Bloodborney type pace to the combat then the likes of Nioh and Dark Souls. It says it's a work in progress but on PS5 it looks and runs like an absolute dream already, didn't encounter any bugs or performance issues, runs absolutely buttery smooth and looks magnificent. If you've got both consoles the XBX version seems borked so download it on PSN and you'll be away. I don't really think it's doing too much to innovate but the combat feels great, the environments are typically Nioh/Souls along with the Ninja/Samurai-esque looking enemies. One area where they're trying something different is the levelling, every enemy has a level above their heads, killing a lot of enemies levels you up which you then need to lock in at a bonfire (flag) or you can lose all those levels if you're defeated. Throughout the entire demo I got up to Level 10 then got my arse handed to me by some Tiger-thing and went down to Level 6 which I then need to build up again to face it again whenever I get round to it. Very impressive though technically, and a whole ton of fun, doesn't do too much to innovate in the already crowded Souls-like genre but this is one of the best I've played (as was Nioh).

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

Just some general impressions here of the unit itself really for those interested. For context, I've only ever used one VR headset before and that was original PSVR. Super simple to unbox, very much like the PS5 in the no-frills aspect of it with all the cardboard and a cardboard/paper based cable tie, seeing the unit for the first time, picking it up, picking the Sense controllers up I was surprised how light everything is. You look at the PSVR2 sitting there in its little moulded cardboard box and for some reason think this is gonna be heavy, but it's not, it's surprisingly light, crazy light really for everything that's going on inside it. The Sense controllers are light too but maybe a little too light at times, I would maybe like a little more weight to them, they are very slippery too so the straps are needed to avoid making a hole in my TV lol. In the box is also another mini-box which contains the instructions, some different buds for the included ear buds and in some plastic (!!!) was the stereo ear buds themselves. The very first time I tried the headset it was with my own HyperX headphones I've had for donkeys years now, but it didn't quite feel right on my head, I felt like something was off. So I took it off, clipped in the stereo earbuds (which attach nicely onto the back of the headset so you don't even know they're on, and even have little holders for each of the buds on the sides of the backstrap of the headset itself) and it was so much better. Yes, I generally don't like earbuds and yes they did fall out my ear a few times before I got them fit in my ears properly but once that was done the immersion was much better and more importantly the comfort was much better than using my HyperX over-ear headphones. If you've ever tried a PSVR1 on in GAME, at an event etc. then you'll immediately be familiar with the design of PSVR2, the two are incredibly similar in terms of their overall design, the way the strap does up, the general aesthetic of the whole unit and feel on your head and all the jazz. As mentioned previously though, it is much lighter than PSVR1, you don't feel the weight on your head at all and it has a huge amount of improvements from that headset whilst maintaining the same overall design philosophy. The biggest change is the quality of the screens, it's almost chalk and cheese compared to the OG PSVR, it's just immediately clearer and you don't get that 'screen door' effect on black screens. You also don't get that pixelated image as much, it is still there to a degree which I was surprised about as I assumed the OLED panels would eliminate this, but it is there slightly, just nowhere near as bad. You can also change the lens location in the headset to match up with your eyes and is much easier to find the 'sweet spot' when wearing glasses. It's just much more comfortable overall. The eye tracking is impressive but aside from menus in Horizon that use it, I haven't really properly tried it out in a game in earnest yet but I believe it does help with the tracking in general that the headset does. The other new button on the headset is the 'function' button which allows you to see the outer world whilst in game and enables you to set up your play area before you play so you don't collide into things or damage anything. You can edit this play area with the Sense controllers to make things bigger or larger depending on your needs. Unfortunately, the living room isn't quite big enough for roomscale so I have to go with the 'standing' option after I've set up the play area. The Sense controllers feel intuitive to use and a million times better than the godawful Move controllers you had to content with in PSVR1, every button seems to be placed exactly where it should be and there isn't any awkwardness, the finger tracking works really well, seeing your hand open and close in Horizon is a really cool moment. Games-wise, I've only tried out GT7 and Horizon: CotM so far. I don't like to have too many games on the go at one time so I didn't want to start about 7 different PSVR2 games and then feel like I'm beholden to all of them if that makes sense. More impressions in the dedicated threads but both of these are amazing in VR for different reasons, showpieces for the headset in general. Overall, it's just a much comfier, easier headset to use than PSVR1 ever was. The 'sweet spot' is much easier to achieve and the picture nowhere near as blurry, less affected by fogging lenses or anything like that. I'm still finding my 'VR legs' so to speak, as a few titles on PSVR1 made me feel sick so I wanted to err on the safe side, but with this, aside from a few early moments at high speed with GT7 I haven't had any issues with that whatsoever thankfully. Not sure if anyone else is too interested in VR in general, but if anyone has any questions they want answered I'll do my best. Here's of video of me looking like a tit in my living room for everyone to enjoy lol. https://imgur.com/a/e9d2Wgt

There's a famous saying 'never meet your heroes', which I was incredibly aware of and worried about going in to this. For how much I absolutely love the OG TLOU I have never once replayed it (I don't usually replay games as you all may know) so whilst I was excited to go back to one of my favourite games of all time I was also a bit apprehensive at what I'd find once I got back into that world. Thankfully, what I've encountered going back in and playing through it again has made me appreciate it all the more. It's kind of a strange juxtaposition though, a game that looks so current-gen and astounds you pretty much at every turn coupled with a game that is structurally made in the last throngs of the PS3 generation of systems. Back when I played it in 2013 I absolutely adored the combat, I tended to agree back then that Uncharted's gunplay was one of its downfalls but throughout TLOU I never had that issue and always loved the tense stealth gameplay during the clicker/runner sections and the somewhat Uncharted-esque segments where human foes are involved. All tied together in this gritty semi-realistic way, making you craft things out of bandages, scissors, alcohol, cloth and other rudimentary materials you find dotted about the many derelict abandoned buildings you come across. So needless to say, the way it plays doesn't 100% hold up in 2022 which is a shame, TLOUPII just blows it out the water in that regard and ruins this somewhat as a result. That level of experimentation, problem solving and mobility to the combat segments in particular are just missing in this and after awhile you go into a pattern - particularly in the stealth segments - of carefully sneaking up to each enemy, strangling them all to clear out the room then moving onto the next room and sometimes doing the same thing again. I will say it does vary up the stealth segments with the human segments and the set pieces very well so you never get too much of one at the same time, but even so at the point I'm into the game now (just entered Fall) at 12 hours in the way it plays is a little more stale than I remember it ever being in the original. As for improvements, the animations are much improved along with the enemy AI who now flank like hawks (?) even on the 'moderate' difficulty I'm playing on, gunplay also feels tighter but because of my memory I can't notice too many differences from the original in terms of the combat and stealth segments. I'm still absolutely besotted with it though, the story is as incredible as I remember it being, there's little nods in there to things that I don't ever remember being in there like a moment quite early into the game where Tess tells Joel to move on when Ellie enquires about Joel's past, likewise there's a poster in Pittsburgh of a Twilight-like romcom, Joel comments that it's the last film he saw before the Pandemic and Ellie says something like 'why would you go to that, it's for people my age' and Joel deflects the question and they both move on, with you, the player fully knowing why. It's still incredibly moving and I've cried twice so far with more heart-breaking moments to come. I never noticed it before but you can see Joel get more and more attached to Ellie as the game goes on, he has his guard up at the beginning and doesn't want to open up but the more time they spend together the more fond of her he gets which you can tell by some of his replies to certain things she says. Should go without saying really but graphically it’s a real showpiece for the system. I think the lighting and reflections are perhaps the most impressive aspects but the level of facial detail in the characters along with the crazy detailed new textures in buildings, materials and everything else on your adventures. I can't tell you how happy (maybe that's the wrong word? lol) it makes me feel to play this game again, like slipping into your favourite pair of old worn slippers first thing on a Winters day, it's just cosy. Going back to something you've got such vivid, fond memories of and it being every bit of the game you can remember and then some (well, mostly) is just such a nice feeling to have. I'm quite lucky too that my memory is so bad that I've forgotten vast swathes of the game, whole areas of Boston and Pittsburgh I'd completely forgotten, the whole opening chapter with Tess I hardly remembered at all either. So yeah, sometimes it's great to meet your heroes and hang out with them again. Pics:

Spent a couple of hours with this over this afternoon... after the reviews I've been counting the hours. First up I'll say spend some time setting the game up, turn off film grain and blur and knock performance off you'll notice a marked improvement in picture clarity. Also the game came set for stereo sound which is odd. The game does look great though, plays really nice too, having played the three Dead Space games repeatedly this feels really quick compared to the clunky original games... took a little while to get used to but feels nice now, especially after changing to the DS2 control option. Noticed quite a few new doors in the environments I've seen so far, also walked to the beginning of chapter 2 instead of using the tram which was really weird... been a couple of instances where you choose what to power up... one where you're forced to kill the lights and this game does proper dark, no bullshit greys in this game... it's dark! The game has already made me jump more in the first two hours what with noises or necromorphs creeping up behind me than The Callisto Protocol managed in its entire run time... it's good to be back.

Originally a PS3 game with a PS4 version, Ishin has now been remade as a PS4 and PS5 (and Xbox) game, and you do get the sense it's probably the final game we'll get that feels like 'old' Yakuza. It's hard to place what exactly makes it feel like an older take on the game, possibly the movement, it's a bit haphazard, I can't see a lock-on, it's not as refined and flowing as it could be. It's the difference between playing Kiwami 1 and Yakuza 6. It also feels less mental with its missions, but I don't know how many of them are just lifted from the original game. In terms of the story, it's not quite a retelling of the first Yakuza game, but it's pretty close. Not-Kiryu (the cast is made up of renamed characters from past games) comes back to town after time away, ends up having to avenge a paternal figure, after being blamed for a crime he didn't commit. From there it does become its own tale, with enough to it that it doesn't feel like a 2nd-rate spin off Again, I don't know if this was in the original, but it has its own take on 0's switchable different fighting styles. There's the standard Yakuza brawling, plus the swordplay you'd expect playing as a samurai. Less expected is that you are also carrying a gun and can just blast away at people (I suppose this will have followed Dead Souls originally), and a style that combines sword combat with your firearm, which leaves you defensively vulnerable, but it's the most fun to control and the most flowing style (Sword has been my do to). I've been using fewer Heat actions, they seem to have been downplayed this time, and access to them is more part of the skill tree As you use a style you'll level up, unlocking specific and general orbs that unlock the next skill in the various combat styles. There's gear with stat boosts, and some with perks attached. I've got a sword that recovers a very small amount of help every time it causes damage, which is great, but the headband I've got with the most defence points blocks me from earning heat, which means it can go in the bin as far as I'm concerned I'm enjoying it more than I expected, I thought I was a bit Yakuza's out, I never finished Kiwami 2, I never finished Judgement, and haven't touched the games that came after. But this feeling a bit archaic has helped it I think

Its the new gran turismo, you drive cars around and stuff. Theres an odd story mode thing where you have to go to a cafe and you get a menu, but its not like a normal menu where you order food, this one has cars on it and you have to win (by racing) or buy them, then when thats done theres another menu, inbetween people tell you stuff about the cars etc. and it goes on like that. Its sort of odd. Theres all the usual stuff, racing, license tests, online, upgrades, car washing, music rally, etc. like gt sport if you drive 26 miles a day you get a chance to win stuff, unlike sport, that isnt always a car, sometimes its 2000 credits, which wont even buy you paint. i want to paint all my cars cool colours but being cautious with the cash at the start, its pretty annoying, the painting should be free. Maybe youll be able to download paint jobs made by other people for free, you could in sport, that would go some way to mitigating the paint thing. it has thrown loads of cars at me so far though, theyre all pretty slow/rubbish so far, so hopefully it throws some good cars at me at some point. the important stuff like the handling and tracks and forcefeedback are there and seem really good, seems pretty similar to sport, although i havent played that in a while. But at the start its all slow cars which im not too keen on, much prefer it when you get to the racing cars. music rally i only did once, you drive round through checkpoints and the music changes or something. the menus are pretty silly but im used to it so its just seems normal. the quick loading is great! And does really help with the menus so at least you dont have to wait for it to load different sections. i played on performance mode and it looks pretty nice but didnt really blow me away, but it looks nice and runs smooth so thats cool. is the graphics mode the one to go for? if you like gt youll probably like it. You guys playing it, what do you think?

Played through some of the opening hours of this last night. My understanding watching previews was that this is an open world immersive sim, but you wouldn't really know that from the opening. It's an incredibly rail-roaded section of gameplay which really feels like a throwback to 360 gaming, which I don't entirely mean as a compliment cause it's an era of gaming I don't quite enjoy (overly long set pieces showing off HD tech being one of those things I don't love). There's some interesting stuff here mechanically however, or at least it appears like it will become interesting. It's tribute act includes Bioshock (and maybe Prey). Instead of neuromods or plasmids it's this polymer stuff that is the newest thingy you stick in your hands and eyeballs to do magic. Starting off I got a zap power, and a power which covers stuff in a sort of grey paste looking gel which also conducts electricity by the looks of things (the one power interaction I've discovered so far). There's a big focus on melee combat, sort of like Condemned, with a kind of spacing element to its gameplay which is hard to figure out cause it's hard to know how much distance is safe or not or how much reach you have. It's a very clunky onboarding, with some atrocious voice acting in the English dub that actually had me muting sections until I found out you could change it to russian (the subs are a bit small, unfortunately). To be honest, based on these initial hours I think the whole thing feels a bit shonky and unoriginal, but these games don't come together mechanically until you've unlocked some powers and they take the reins off and let you feel more independent and brainy, which I hope will still happen in this once it finally opens up. This screenshot made me lol, big ass mission text that never disappears saying 'where the fuck am i, find door handle', waypoints everywhere and huge weapon taking up the screen. Yup, a 360 era game lol. You can't holster weapons or customise the huds. These seem like nitpicks but the UI could do with being more customisable cause it gets in the way of immersion in this immersive sim, imo. There's also no FOV adjustment, which can be a bit motion sickness inducing in a FPS with a melee focus, tho I fixed that with flawless widescreen. Highly recommend doing the same if you can, or having a hardy stomach The game is visually decent, however there's no ray tracing at all which is strange as this was I think the first game Nvidia ever demonstrated with RT on their RTX 2000 cards. The poster boy for the tech. Well, at least it runs extremely well, no stuttering and it has a precompile shader cache, something which seems to be catching on now between this and Dead Space (this is just 30 minutes into the game, but I'll spoiler it) it not only rips of Bioshock, it also rips off Harry Potter!

I’m very bad at it but 2042 seems alright. There was a 10gb update so I missed out on all the bugs I think. The only jank I’ve noticed is slow texture loading at the beginning of a match (ps4 pro) and sometimes your body might go a bit mad when you die. The levels I’ve played on have been ok but I’ve not played enough to have memorised any of them. The one with the skyscrapers and has a huge tornado rip through the middle of the map was a stand out moment. I got killed because I was stood staring at it. It looked awesome was giving me anxiety. They seem to have stopped giving you anything if you have played any previous BF games which I don’t mind I guess but some recognition would have been nice. Just some gamer card art. I don’t understand the load outs just yet. You seem to be able to give anyone anything? Like give an assault guy a medic pack instead of ammo? I didn’t play around with it much so idk. It all sounds very nice and the pro version looks a lot better than the base ps4. God knows what the og xb1 version must look like. The menu and UI and a lot cleaner and user friendly than what I remember of 1 and 5. It’s Battlefield.

I'm starting to think all the best titles on Game Pass are the little indie darlings. I've smashed Boyfriend Dungeon. Enjoyed Raji's full game a hell of a lot more than the demo. I absolutely adored The Gunk, and Dodgeball Academia. And now I've played this clever little head-scratcher. Meanwhile, I'm constantly ignoring the blockbusters that hit the service, because fuck it. They can get played another time. Anyway, I've started talking about The Pedestrian on a tangent, and I kinda feel like that's how the game has to be played, too. Your goal is to navigate an incredibly linear world as the stick man (or woman) from public toilet signs. You do this by working your way from room to room, solving puzzles, and all that good stuff that makes a simple game loads of fun. It would all be a bit boring if the concept just involved you jumping about in a world with worse graphics than Super Mario Land, though, which is where this game's USP comes into play. Each area you navigate is set on a road sign-style panel, and might have different doors or ladders to get you into the next area. These panels aren't always connected though. Sometimes you'll need to hit Y (or triangle) to zoom out and see all the current panels you have to work with. You'll then be able to make connections from door to door, or ladder to ladder. You might even need to move the panels themselves to create a line of sight between each exit. Moving panels won't break a connection, but adjusting where connections happen will. Basically, if at any point you break said connections, the entire puzzle you're on at the moment resets, and your progress starts all over again. It's not just about creating a route from area to area, although that's a big part of it. You also have to make the environment work for you. Every now and again you'll encounter a hub level which requires different elements before you can escape. These are acquired by hopping into those tangents that I mentioned earlier. Say you need a key. You might need to head through the bottom left-hand door, which will take you to a series of puzzles, eventually letting you bring a key back to the main room. You might then need a wire, or a battery pack, or even something as simple as a box to hop up onto a ledge that's just out of reach. Once you've solved all the tangents for each hub, you can then move on. You know how in some games they use the same idea over and over again, and it can become exceptionally boring? Well The Pedestrian doesn't suffer that fate. Its physics, mechanics, and even the nature of the puzzles themselves have been sanded down and polished to this outstanding finish where nothing feels out of place. Can't solve a puzzle? That's on you. That ledge too high? You need something to help you get there. Go find it. The very fact that I sat down and finished this in three goes says it all for me. I loved everything it did. It's so, so much fun, and something that literally wouldn't work in any other type of medium. Achievements are very generous, too. I got 1000 points without trying.

I started playing some of this. I'm definitely going to need digital foundry to hold my hand on what settings I should be turning on, the auto detect option on the game itself recommended I max the game out but that isn't happening. I figured I would settle for 30fps but the camera motion in this is really bad, it doesn't feel good. So I'll have to tweak that. Anyway it's very janky and hard to play so far. Everyone makes a big song and dance about DLSS but it dont play well with camera movement. I guess there is a hell of a lot of detail to be reconstructing all the time. Sometimes the game looks spectacular but sometimes I'm sort of finding it to look kind of terrible. Part of it is the game feels sort of weird. People phase into existence in front of you, cars render in front of you. Obviously there's weird shit with people t-posing but that's minor. At one time in a cutscene V was completely naked for no reason, that made me lol and makes me wonder if your model is always like that cause it's a FPS game and you can't see your tits or dick or whatever. Gameplay wise I find it hard to play and the HUD and text is such a bad clash of colours and design that I can't tell what's going on half the time or what the things I'm picking up are. This could just be the awkward teething phase but it feels kind of gross. The driving is also really swimmy. I mean I'm sure it gets good as you go in but yeah it's like kind of clunky in a really strange way. These guys did make The Witcher III I suppose. It feels like someone took Euro jank and gave it all the money but kept the jank. The game throws a million things at you at once and displays a bunch of info on your HUD that's hard to keep track of. It's not a very gentle easing into the world, it sort of just throws you in and you're constantly bewildered, well I am anyway. I'm confused. There's a lot going on here but it's not so much that it's deep just that there's a fucking lot of it and I can't be arsed to read it all. I played 3 hours of it, one of which was a big shootout. The shooting doesn't feel good, but it sounds good. Aiming is bad, there's a lot of control options to figure out so I will definitely be following whatever guide somebody puts up to fix the issues with it. Anyway it's cyberpunk, it does the Bladerunner thing. Pris is in it, sort of. That's what people wanted, a very Bladerunner-ey game. Except this is less chin stroking and more aggressive 90s Rob Zombie in your face all the time. Feels of an era This game is very hard to run, pretty much never see 60fps at the settings the game recommends for me. It's exactly the kind of game people were expecting, an absolute monster for both GPU and CPU. A new Crysis.

I played a good chunk of this the last two days, and now the clock on it says 9 hours. Enough to give early impressions. It's a mixed bag, and I'm not going to get into the technical problems cause there's a lot out there on that already. Just to say that 8GB VRAM cards are going to have problems, and so will PS5. Pick your poison (or don't), but it's genuinely a shocking product that Luminous have put out, especially given the generally high quality of FFXV (technically speaking, the game itself wasn't something I was into). Something went wrong in the production process here, maybe this is one of those games which just could not adapt to development during the pandemic. That said, there are some neat things which aren't being spoken about much in the 'discourse' around this title. I probably already got into it on the demo thread I made, but it's a free-flowing parkour battle mage combat system. I think it's really cool, and is the reason I bought the game in spite of all the issues and high price. You have a sort of stamina system, little pips above the health bar. They let you parkour and are also used to defend you from massive damage. When you parkour, you can do other contextual actions like attack and such. You chain parkour, support abilities and attack spells together. I think it's neat anyway It's just you have to grind through some really mundane stuff to even get to see what good the game has to offer. The opening few hours limits you to these rock powers for maybe 6 hours or so, and that was me sort of beelining my way to the first boss to get the melee abilities unlocked. Meanwhile the presentation is very cheap. Badly animated cutscenes, stilted animations and awkward fade-to-black transitions. It reminds me of the main story questline in FFXIV, in terms of all of the above (also funnily enough built on a fork of luminous engine I think). It feels sort of like an Assassin's Creed 1 type of game, where there are parts here which could be built into a great game but are thrown together in either a lazy or rushed way, and the overall feel is a bit meh. That said from what I've seen and heard the game only improves as more abilities unlock, and if you just want to fly around the place killing things with fancy magic the game seems to serve that battle mage fantasy very well.