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Seems pretty good. initially was a bit disapointed as its more like a traditional mario game than i was expecting, thats on me as i only watched the first trailer and thought it was going to be even more crazy. Anyway, it is a somewhat crazy and pretty cool! Been really enjoying it. i want some flowers like that in real life that give me some encouragement and stuff. the crazy bits are a bit hit and miss, well hit and less of a hit as some are a lot of fun and others are less so, wouldnt say anything has been bad so far. the levels are rated for difficulty, the hardest one ive done was 5 stars, dont know if it goes higher, but that level was really hard but i enjoyed it too. i dont like the old style lives system, although to be fair running out of lives wasnt as annoying as i was expecting. the graphics are nice. So far its probably up there with my favourite 2d mario game - the wii u one - was sort of hoping a bigger 2d mario fan would start the thread but here we are! seen a few people got it in the pics thread, how you guys getting on with it?

Found out about this by chance when I went through the Golden Joystick nominees and after watching its trailer I immediately bought it. Looked like it'd hit all the right notes for me and thankfully that proved correct. It's from a small French studio called Plane Toast (the food-puns seem to be all over the place) and seemingly their first project. You play as a young adult girl who receives an SOS signal from the ship her sister disappeared in six years prior, proceed to leave the space station you're currently residing at and start following the trail of the signal to a mostly deserted colony planet where you grew up. It's not the most unique setup, but it gives you an immediate emotional hook for what is essentially a purely exploration-driven open world game. And it mixes in some slight Dune-ish mystery elements via the titular Sand Witches and some subtext about environmentalism and corporate greed in there as well. The gameplay foundations are very light, there's a bit of climbing and platforming, there's a lot of driving around, and the only thing you find when exploring are either materials to build new tools or certain items you need to collect quests. Because there are still some people living on the planet and they're struggling to survive, so they're more than happy to have a newcomer there who can help out. Story progression is linked to the tools you build, as unlocking one moves the plot and timetable a bit forward. There's no combat, so when I say tools I mean a gadget to allow you to use ziplines or a scanner for your car to more easily find interactable objects, among them signal blockers which jam your map and are basically UbiSoft towers (they only reveal a couple of question marks on the map though, not a hundred). I can't put my hand on what it is exactly, probably just all the gears perfectly fitting together, but it's an incredibly engaging experience IMO. It's not a deep game by any means, at least mechanically. Think of it as a less obtuse version of Sable, or the bigger cousin of A Short Hike, and you get the idea. The world is densely packed and gives the impression of being vast, but you can drive around from one edge to the other in I presume less than five minutes. But it does evoke an incredibly sense of place, mostly due to the strong artstyle, great soundtrack and grounded, believable writing. It's also unmistakably French, and I don't say that with any kind of fun-poking subtext, because the media landscape has become very unified in recent years, so it's nice to see something European with a unique cultural influence for a chance. I guess part of why I like it so much might also be because it just came out of nowhere, which nobody reading this and deciding to pick it up will have the luxury anymore, but I do believe it's a really good 'experience' if you like more challenge-free games. I'm not quite through yet, but I suspect it will conclude at around the 10 hour mark, which seems like a reasonable length for a game without much mechanical depth. One last thing: I play it on Switch because I don't have a PS5 or a decent PC and I wouldn't really recommend that version. It permanently runs sub-30fps and has horrible pop-in and dynamic resolution drops. It speaks to the quality of the game that I'm still enjoying it, but unless you have no other option like myself, I'd strongly recommend playing it anywhere else.

Been playing this for around 6 hrs on Series S - and it's quite enjoyable. Has some similarities, in terms of roguelike progression, as Into the Breach, although game presentation and pathways are significantly different. I've defeated the first boss, and so I'll see how well it keeps my interest (probably up to a point where it turns into a grind (or not)). Anyway it's certainly a bit different in looks at least to the mainstream.

Less than an hour in and from a gameplay perspective this is already deeper than any of the previous games. The levelling up system alone reminds me of FF X. You can block! You can dodge? There is something a bit off about the powers though. Which might be indicative of the One player experience. Your AI teammates don't automatically use their abilities, so the revamped combo system has to be done manually and it is a bit clunky as a result. Obviously not an issue in the slightest for those playing with others. Other than that, it is pretty good so far. At the first available option, which isn't right away, my team now consists of: Star Lord Hulk Drax Wolverine

Not sure how popular this series is over here, haven't seen it mentioned much. I never got into the Dig games, but really enjoyed Quest and Heist, and as I was looking for a nice handheld title I picked up the latter's sequel right when it came out last week. For those unaware, Heist is a turn-based, squad-based tactical RPG that is rather unique, but describing it as Valkyria Chronicles in 2D probably comes rather close to how it plays. After positioning your units you can aim freely, either directly at your enemy or letting your bullets ricochet off walls and objects if the line of sight is obscured. Where VC makes up for the lack of agency while aiming by applying RNG to hit quotas, Heist makes things a bit more complicated by weapon sway during aiming or some classes and/or weapons not having aiming sights at all, so you kind of have to eyeball the direction and hope for the best. Speaking of classes, this is a big new feature for this sequel. You still control predetermined characters but you can now freely switch classes around by equipping different weapons. Some skills you learn this way can then be activated in a different class by using cogs, so you can, for example, give the 'Boomer' (grenadier) the sniper's line of sight skill so that they can fire their rockets with more accuracy. There's six classes so there's decent potential for experimentation but also not an overwhelming amount that will make you lose interest in it, and with certain weapons having different properties and additional equipment there's definitely enough depth here to finetune your crew. The second big new feature is that, this being a pirate themed adventure, you now travel the ocean by ship instead of just picking missions from an overworld. And this isn't just for show, as the ship can also be equipped with weapons and will be pulled into naval battles with other vessels. It's all very streamlined – you only have to get in range and in position and you will fire automatically whatever weapon is equipped to the front and sides – but it adds a nice little extra dimension to progression and gives you something else to do than just the tactical encounters. I'm about ten hours in and close to completing the second area and while I don't want to oversell it, I think this is excellent. There was one slightly annoying enemy type in the second area, but otherwise it almost feels flawless so far, the right balance between accessibility and depth, rewarding progression, overall high levels of polish (as usual for their games, but still worth pointing out). It can be challenging at times, but it has multiple difficulty setting and even one that lets you completely customise certain aspects like damage, health etc. Haven't messed around with that though. Good year for unique tactical games between this and Unicorn Overlord I'd say. (Not my screenshot, because Nintendo hates Musk.)

It's hard to explain The Cub without being reductive. It's kind of a really pretty Limbo, except without the puzzles. The most striking thing about it, without doubt, is how it looks. It looks like a cartoon, the devs have done an amazing job with it. It's even got the choppyness to the animation, without it being too overbearing. The characters look great, the backgrounds look great, and there's even a few bespoke animations that are only used for set moments. It runs really well too, my desktop hitting it's max framerate on a game like this isn't a huge surprise I suppose, but it was locked at 60fps on Steam Deck too Gameplay features a lot of platforming, nothing especially challenging, we're not talking Celeste or whatever, but you will likely die a few times. Often this will be because you have to encounter something to know it's coming, the mine cart section for example, it's just a case of failing until you learn it. It's also where I noticed a did of animation delay. Pressing to duck actually takes a few frames to happen because The Cub animates to duck. That caused a few deaths. The double jump either gets taken away from you at points or it's more temperamental than it should be. Similarly there were a few times The Cub didn't grab ledges. It adds to the feeling that the platform mechanics aren't quite there The rest of the game is made up of stealth, chase, flying and a couple of swimming sections. With the stealth it's not always clear what will act as stealth, a problem from the art style I suppose, but it's not too frustrating. Which sums up the game I suppose, you'll die a decent amount, but it isn't hard, it's just a case of learning what to do A word for the story too. Humans have fled earth, they're now Martians and are taking trips back to mine resources and play golf. The Cub is a mutant who has survived on earth. The catastrophe that made earth uninhabitable was caused by late stage capitalism, and the rich abandoned the rest of us to die here. There's a ton of moments that are pulled from the headlines, I suppose your mileage with that will vary. All in all The Cub is a decent game. It came out earlier this year and had a pretty significant discount on Steam during the recent sale. It's a few hours long, nothing too demanding

This game came out in 2021, but I was unaware of it until the current steam sale. It's a lovely, chilled golf-puzzle game. Over a number of different themed worlds, you complete golf holes, earning more stars for completing in fewer shots. Working out how to do some of the holes in 2 or 3 shots to get the maximum star rating is actually quite fun. Some levels have a hidden secret hole/cube/other object to seek out and hit with your ball, which will unlock an alternate path on the map leading to extra stars or a special hole. Completing that hole will add an extra hidden collectible "blue things" to some of the holes on the map, which are used to unlock access to more challenging caverns which make use of the various features and gimmicks you've played with on that map. They can take a bit of figuring out, but are very satisfying. There are only a couple of barriers to progress requiring you to have earned a certain number of stars to pass, or the caverns mentioned above needing x number of the collectible things. The requirements aren't high, helping the game to feel pretty relaxed (the final cavern at the end of the game only needs slightly more than half the total number of collectibles). I got right to the end without engaging much with the secrets, then went back to the first 3 or 4 worlds and completed a bunch of them and had a great time doing it.

I'm around six hours in so in the scope of these games that isn't much but I have some stuff to say I guess. So you play a kid in a Tokyo high school and some strange murders are happening and you and your friends who is trying to investigate it like a YouTuber would gets sucked into this world after Armageddon happens. Its posed to you that it's twenty years into your future and Tokyo is destroyed and buried in sand as well as demons hanging out pretty much everywhere. You also kind of fuse with a demon who talks like an android. There is a slight change of circumstances for our boy. I've spent all my time running around this glittery, sandy area so far; fighting demons and helping out some others. The areas are kinda big and make me think of Xenoblade Chronicles more than anything else. I say that because they have these hidden areas with fun secrets and are quite intricate. They're quite a bit smaller but they have similar ideas in how they're built. It's unexpected compared to the fourth game {and I'd imagine the ones before that} as they are dungeon based having you explore these tight areas. The other reason It reminds me of XC is there are tough enemies that are meant to be fought way later roaming around blocking areas and just generally keeping you on your toes. Exploration has this constant pressure though as the combat even with basic enemies can be dangerous if you don't have the right team so it can get a bit stressful when loads of enemies are around a place you want to be. Combat is still strong in this game as it was before because with the right attacks and spells you easily dominate a fight but the flipside is so can the enemy if you let them in. You essentially get another turn if you hit with a critical hit or hit an elemental weakness. This can be easy once you've found those weaknesses but going into a new area with new enemies or bosses make you try to stay safe while you experiment with different moves. I've been finding the game still pushes you hard into really thinking about using everything you can in a smart way. What's working for me so far for the boss I beat so far and harder enemies is having one of the last demons in my squad have a sleep attack so after I've got all my attacks out I just use that then they miss a turn and I can go through my bullshit again. Yes, you have a squad of demons. You have three in a fight and can carry six but that can increase as the game goes on so yes it is a bit like Pokémon. But here you can fuse two or more together to make new demons so that's what I've ended up doing so I can make room for more. But you don't catch them in a ball you have to talk to them and convince them to come with you. You have to try and asses what personality they'd have and basically tell them what they want to hear and bribe them. There's probably an optimal way of doing it but as long as I have enough stuff I just give them what they want and hope they aren't complete arseholes and just bounce {they've not done that yet here but I know it's a thing they can do}. Oh, and a tip; don't try to befriend a demon with a higher level than you because they don't come with you then, but I did have one situation where when I fought the same enemy in the same area it did come with me once I talked to it at the right level with no convincing. I don't have much to say about the story so far as its early and sploilers but it seems pretty typical of the series but I'm about to go to where some angels live so maybe things will start picking up there.

Not just for @bellow, but in general. With the recent multi-platform re-release, it is as good a time as any for those looking to return or jump in for the first time to one of the least contentious fan favourites in the series. With a little something, to set the mood... (Yes, this was a real thing)

Where to start. What it is. It is definitely an old school Rare esq 3D platformer. From the music to the grunty dialogue, the duo of characters and the cohorts you meet along the way, it's pertty much Banjo Kazooie 3 in all but name. It's good from what I played so far but I know it will annoy people due to being the above. You can scale a height of platforms only to find you can't progress. Certain characters won't talk to you yet untill you do something later to unlock their progression. Everyone talks alot and makes bad jokes. You can see things you can't get to as you need to learn a move that comes later on and I think this kind of thing will piss people off. I love this kind of game, i'm on board, I knew what it was and that's what i want so im cool with all that shit. What i'm not cool with is the shitty camera. It feels like they've brought that with them as part of the nostalgia. It's not game breakingly terrible by any means but, for example, the boss of world one is up a slope. He's chuckingshit down at you and you have to avoid it. For some reason they've loked the camera really low down so it's hard to judge when to jump. Also, the movement when you move up slopes using your slope run move is awful. It's realy fast and even when you press left or right you go up a little bit first. This is super fucking frustrating on his third attack pattern and I felt like I shouldn't be getting this pissed of with the game on the first boss. It can also be hard to judge where platforms or collectibles are a la Banjo or Mario 64. They slightly deeper in to the background or more in to the forefront than you sometimes expect - extra annoying if that is a misplaced jump that sends you falling to your death or back to the beginning of a climb. But but but, it's great platforming for the most part. The controls are slick, it's a beatiful colourful world and it's all very jolly. Littered with collectibles and tons of stuff to do, it seems certainly great value for your money. It's just weird I have the same beef with it that I did with the Nintendo 64's flagship game. I'm only a couple of hours in, watch this space I guess.

I find myself needing to take breaks from FF7 Rebirth. What better then to play the last of the Classic Era I am the least familiar with? I played this originally with the PSOne collection many years ago now. The newest playthrough is via the Pixel Remaster. So let's get this out of the way. The story isn't the main focus of this one. This is a "four chosen heroes gather to protect the elemental crystals that power the world". I'm already two and half hours in and the story has been on the lighter side, so far. As is the tone. This is almost at odds with FF4 and FF6 that start strong on the story front. You play as four characters almost from the very beginning. So there is no real "main one" to focus on. So what is the main focus of this one? Job Classes. This is basically the last game to refine the job system that debuted in FF1. Here's the gimmick though: You level up your job class and past a certain cap. Unlock a skill IE use of White Magic that you can retain when transferring to another job. For example, when the job classes are first unlocked. I set one character as a Monk IE the physical powerhouse. A couple levels in, you unlock "Barehanded". A skill the grants other job classes the physical strength of a Monk, when unarmed. Therefore, that character is now a Black Mage. Who when the skill is set also happens to be one of the strongest attackers in the party. This opens up a lot of variety to each build and character. Magic is also done a bit differently in this. You don't "learn" a single spell. You buy them from a Magic shop. Now levelling up White and Black Mages grants higher levels of proficiency. The initial unlocked skill grants use of Level 1 White/Black Magic EG Cure, Fire etc This goes upto level 6. So it pays to have one of two of your characters set long term as a Mage. Blue Magic also returns. Which is weirdly done. Because you don't influence enemy attacks in anyway. You just have to wait and see if the enemy has something you can learn. You don't even gain the "Learn" ability until Blue Mage lvl 3. This is the kind of grinding that I find really relaxing. Especially with the speed up battle option.

Ok then. So first play session done and this definitely feels like a sequel to Super Paper Mario. With the interactive battle system of TTYD or Mario & Luigi. I thought the battle system was a bit easy... Until one new enemy left me scratching my head long enough to discover there is a timer to your actions. Early impressions and all that, but the music so far isn't doing anything for me. Usually Mario OST are quite catchy and memorable. But the music original to this game... Meh. I'll go for a slightly longer play session tomorrow. But overall, I like it.

There isn't a thread for this already? It's a gem of a game! Simple loop of fishing and then selling your catches in a restaurant, both of which can be gradually upgraded and for some reason, you'll want to get them upgraded! There are side stories, or maybe main stories (not sure yet) that give you loads of new objectives. Plus you'll want to get your restaurant ranking up, which means you need to get better at fishing, so you'll want better gear... It's a fantastic loop that is very very difficult to put down. The swimming physics are nice too, it all feels great!

A bit surprised this doesn't have a topic yet as I think the other games did have a few fans here. But then again I bought this on release and only now felt in the right mood to play it, so maybe it just came out at the wrong time. This immediately feels a lot more like 1 than 2, which is most likely a byproduct of it being made by Deck Nine (Before the Storm) who feel probably more comfortable reproducing what worked in the first place and a desire to, well, get back to what worked in the first place. Alex, the protagonist, is extremely approachable in an almost ironic way as she's a bit of introvert with a loaded background, so not unlike Max from the original. Setting the game in a small, rural area in some fictional part of an American mountain range gives it a very idyllic and soothing feel where standing around and rotating the camera is a joy in itself. A byproduct of this is that it also goes back to a fixed cast of NPCs with their own jobs, motivations, backgrounds and personalities. It is not without its faults – Alex' superpower is 'just there' and I find it baffling how the promo material spoiled this game's Aerith moment – but I felt right at home from the first minute. It's just a wonderfully cleansing experience, though it'll probably throw some existential angst in my direction soon (I'm only on chapter 2). One other thing I want to point out is that it looks phenomenal. The lighting, use of colours, the significantly improved facial animations all result in this not being the best-looking LiS title but a genuinely beautiful game even by other standards. It's also the first game in which I actually noticed Raytracing (which can be activated in Performance mode, too) when looking at the extremely realistic reflections on Alex' glasses. They look so good in fact that they almost clash with the slightly dreamy and soft art style. Playing this amidst the recent Square Enix news feels a bit bittersweet as well because I'm unfortunately not expecting them to finance another one of these anytime soon. So I'm definitely taking my time with it and enjoying the ride. Edit: Glasses

Backlog time! This is one of those projects that came out of Riot Forge, the unfortunately now defunct initiative from Riot to establish the LoL universe beyond the base Moba. In this case, we're looking at a relatively classic, linear action-adventure title, made by Tequila Works (Deadlight, Rime, Gylt). On surface level it looks a bit like a companion game à la Last Guardian or Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom, but it works a bit differently in the sense that you control both Nunu (the kid) and Willump (the blue Magic Yeti) in predetermined sections. So there's no manual switching or anything like that, which makes the entire thing relatively streamlined, but also rather simplistic. Nunu can play the flute which allows him to manipulate certain objects to solve puzzles, whereas Willump comes into action for, well, the action when you have to fight. There's also a bit of platforming which both can take part in and a multitude of other little gameplay gimmicks to mix things up, some of which born out of the most unexpected inspirations (Katamari). They can also both throw snowballs, either at each other for fun or to interact with distant objects. Overall its systems, mechanics and difficulty level suggest this is very much a game aimed at kids, with the writing also mimicking your usual tales of family and friendship you'd see in an animated movie. For me I looked at is as a light palette cleanser type game and for that it worked really well. There is a certain amount of ambiguity about the antagonist, resulting in a conflict based around perspective rather than just being black & white, which is a neat touch that goes a bit beyond what you'd expect. It's a cute game overall, 7-8 hours long so doesn't overstay its welcome and even has a few cool surprises up its sleeve. The beginning is a bit bland, both visually and in terms of gameplay, but the latter half really picks up in both of these areas. Not a must play or anything but if you like some simple, well-made classic videogame stuff, this is a nice little project. And also probably a good pick for the intended audience, because it has so many different gameplay elements (platforming, puzzles, combat) that it's a good appetizer for what videogames are about. Forgot to upload some screenshots, I might edit them in later if I don't forget.

I want my mummy... Spent a few hours with this through Game Pass (Xbox obviously)... think I played Innocence toward the tale end of last year and so far this feels nicely familiar. I'm up to Act 3, the first act being more or less a tutorial and the second playing pretty much how you'd expect. Things start harmlessly enough but it doesn't take long for things to fall to shit and the whole world wants Amicia dead for reasons... this time she can fight back a little more, she has a stealth attack and can knife enemies, I haven't got her Crossbow yet but like I say I'm only up to Act 3. You can also break line of sight and hide again if discovered, I can't remember if this was a thing in the first, if it was it was bloody difficult. Some of the views look stunning and so far it's played nicely... there's no performance or graphics mode so I'm not sure if it's locked to 30fps or not... think I saw somewhere that it's 40fps if your display supports 120hz (mine does so who knows) I ended up really liking the first so I'm looking forward to playing more of this.

I wanted to play this from when it first came out, but refused to pay full price for a SpongeBob game in... 2023. Huh, I thought this was more than a year old. Anyway. It's a typical mascot platformer that seemed to breed and multiply in the PS2/Xbox/GameCube days, but brought to life with a glorious new-gen shine. I sound highly cynical, and to be honest, I am on this one. It's linear to a tee (definite positive), but you get a few little side quests that require a touch of exploration - collect a number of golden coins, find a specific character, discover golden spatulas. However, a lot of these extra bits and bobs are locked behind power-based gates. Things like a karate kick, or swinging on a fish hook, or a mega smash. What this means is that if I want to collect everything, it's not a one and done situation, but I essentially need to play the game twice. It's false padding. Anyway, how does it play, I (don't) hear you ask? Meh. It's serviceable. Jumps can be very awkward. Combat can be awkward. Skills can be unresponsive. However, despite all this meh-ness, there's still enough to keep me playing. I think this might be one of the first games I finish this year. Won't be getting 100%, though. Fuck that noise.

This came out to very little fanfare in January and I forgot I pre-ordered it at some point. Was in the right mood to (re)visit it over the weekend, so here goes. First off, the way they bundled this together is rather curious, because you can't simply pick the games on the title screen. Instead it simply throws you into the remake of the DS game and after you beat it it more or less goes straight into its sequel. So if you didn't know any better you'd think these would simply be two chapters of the same game. So far I've only completed the first. The original DS game is a weird one because you could almost call it a tech demo without really offending anyone, but it's also a rather relaxing and charming 'baby's first mystery adventure' kind of game. By remaking this in full 3D without having access to the DS' unique hardware features this would always have been an interesting case study for how to approach remakes and, well, it's not exactly a triumph. Puzzles feel very menial and by-the books, the very first one requires usage of the system's gyro controls and barely works -- after that, they're all solved with classic input methods. Due to the nature of the original it had to spell out a lot of things because it couldn't visually represent them in detail, and unfortunately they didn't adapt the writing to the fact that you can, indeed, now see everything. So you're permanently running into situations where the characters tell you what you see, which adds an unnecessary layer of inactivity to a game that already feels extremely passive. On the plus side, they did make good usage of their apparent low budget by bringing the mansion to life in a rather accomplished fashion. Character models are also very nice and clean, but the camera is placed so close to Ashley I was just waiting for the FBI to knock on the door. On the other hand, the VO is pretty abysmal in terms of audio quality (and, in some cases, the acting itself -- though Ashley herself is thankfully pretty good), camera controls are absolutely awful and the only time it hits its fps target is on the main menu. As a remake I think this is a downgrade in almost every way, but unfortunately I don't have access to the original at the moment to properly compare it to. You could of course make the point that this was mostly made for newcomers, but I wonder if the very simplistic nature of it might turn them off rather than draw them in. That said, I actually did like my second visit to the mansion, to an extent. It's a cool setting and it has a wholesome, if super predictable plot. And if nothing else it's still rather unique, more than two decades later. I think the second game might actually benefit more from the switch to the over-the-shoulder view, because the 2D plane you moved around in always felt oddly restrictive. I've only played the first hour of that one so far, so it's too early to tell, but it already feels like a better fit.

Well, this is officially out now, I got my code from CD Keys around 7:30pm yesterday. Pre-loaded straight away after that on GOG Galaxy (28gb install), and after I'd watched this week's Game of Thrones I fired her up, played the first hour or so (headphones ran out of juice otherwise I would've played more) can't really give any thorough impressions just yet but the combat still seems a bit shithouse to me (never liked it in The Witcher 2) and the graphics look pretty incredible (despite the downgrade) in almost fully-Ultra settings on PC. Just within that opening hour I've found myself wandering away from the main quest, exploring little villages and cubby holes so it bodes well for the rest of the game, shall give it a proper run-through later today.

Its a game where you drive a train. Got this recently on switch, was previously sort of interested in trying the ps4 version, which supports VR so thats cool, but didnt get round to it. And sort of though i might find playing it really boring. Not really sure where my interest in this came from, saw some youtube videos on it and wanted to try it. have been enjoying it, its not the most amazingly exciting thing ever, struggle to explain why im enjoying it but think it helps that its something a bit different and new, to me anyway - thats what i was thinking after the first few missions. Later i got to the 3rd set of missions which are much more involved, with more speed check areas where they try and catch you out like by putting a high speed limit check just before a stop or reduced speed limit, its much more action packed, been really enjoying this set of missions. the main thing to do in the game is stop at the right position at the next station, this is worth the most points etc, and im rubbish at it. But im quite good at doing the extra stuff like arriving on time, dimming lights for other trains, and beeping and pointing at all sorts of stuff. Theres a point button. As in finger pointing. Apparently train drivers are supposed to point at things (and say a catchphrase) to keep them more engaged and stop them from falling asleep or something. i think it helps that this is more arcady than a full on train sim, and the line choice of the tokyo ring road (yamanote line) so has loads of stops and scenery and stuff to do. There never seems to be more than 2 mins between stops. anyone else played one of these? i could find a useful video explaining it better or something but heres this instead

So, Wanting to take a break from Destiny, I've had a go at playing Warframe on the PS4, and I have to say that so far, I've really enjoyed it. It's a 3rd person shooter, that feels part wat between halo and Mass effect. There's a (ludicrously expensive) paid currency if you want to go down that path, but everything is obtainable for free, you just have to wait for it. Has anyone else played this?

So I've been playing the game that is, like many aging hair metal bands, is big in Japan (that 40 year old Spinal Tap joke is how I'm starting my impressions to this genuinely cool game). The only game played there now it seems. I'm probably not going to go on about the specifics of the game because you can just check the thread for the previous game but I'll just say what I've been up to. As a Splatoon Professional I've beelined right to the cool stuff and stayed there for now. That is 'Anarchy Mode (previously 'Ranked Matches')' and 'Salmon Run'. Since I have a Splatoon 2 save I was given three golden tickets which allowed me to buy weapons freely that are usually soft locked behind a level cap, the weapons I know I like which I know fit my play style for the Anarchy Matches. You see most will play the Turf War mode (the basic whoever makes the most mess wins mode) but as a Professional that mode holds little interest to me and I like the objective based modes in Anarchy Mode. One of the is Splat Zones which is basically King of the Hill; you have to keep a certain part of the map in the middle covered in your ink for a set amount of time so in this mode the fight is more concentrated and I like to use the GAL 96, a long ranged weapon that fires slowly with an ink sprinkler as a sub-weapon... well, I used to but it hasn't been working for me this time. I've found more success with the gatling gun class so I can just hang back and provide support more efficiently but maybe I'm still fucked if I get jumped by someone with a better short ranged weapon but as long as I'm smart we win. I do find these modes make use of the alternative weapons so much more. Playing Turf War just use the weapon best at coverage and that's it. You also have Tower Control; there is a small tower on the map that moves towards the enemies side of the map when you stand on it and once it gets to the end you won. I like to use a long ranged kind-of-grenade launcher for this, I forget it's name. it just means with good positioning I can easily eliminate those trying to ride the tower, but again, it's slow firing and bad at short range. It means I do have to rely on my team a lot, I gotta hope we have like a "sweeper" who keeps flankers off my back, because man, do some people just like using the brush class and ruining my day. This is a factor if we win or lose. Take up a role if you're playing this mode. There is also Rainmaker; there is a powerful weapon (but again, bad at short range) that has to be captured and taken into various points on the enemies side of the map. I tend to play this one a bit basic and use a slightly longer range version of the Duelies, a weapon I do tend to use for Turf War if I do play that mode. OK coverage and pretty good at killing and I like the quick step you can do: it confuses the idiots, but also sometimes messes me up, but I'm getting better at it again. They were introduced in S2 and they quickly became my old faithful. Finally there is Clam Blitz; it's a mode that was introduced post release in S2 so I hve the least experience with it. I remember being okay at it but this is the mode I'm struggling with. You collect clams spread around the map, get ten and they turn into an American football(🤷‍♂️) and with that you can break a barrier over a goal on your foes side of the map, and while the barrier is gone you can throw in individual clams. I suck at it and just take my Duelies and kill the enemy and hope my teammates know what they're doing. To be honest it still feels kinda unfamiliar because while the primary weapons all feel the same they're altered the sub-weapons and you special abilities you get after covering so much ground, those especially have been completely changed from the previous games so the dynamic and strats in these modes take some adjustment., I've found at least. But there is also Salmon Run; this is the horde mode with a bunch of boss enemies that drop collectables you have to take to a point to score while adds ruin your day. The more you rank up the more intense it gets and I think I've just got to the point it's interesting to play. I think it's harder than before since I remember being maxed out before and having less problems than now but I've still got some ways to go. A little change they've made is you can throw the collectable so you can pass it up to other players and that's useful at times and they've added some scenarios where you have to do it to be optimal. There's also a thing where the more you play the mode you make a giant salmon angry so a big salmon will turn up at the end and you have to throw the collectable at it to do damage, so you're dealing with this big mf'er stomping around while loads of boss enemies come, kill them, get collectibles and throw them at the big salmon. It gets intense. I've tried it twice and not killed it yet (definitely let down by my team the second smh). I've not tried the SP, I'm not super into it from the previous games (the last boss always rules tho) but I'll try it eventually. One of you's will have to say how that is.

I played through the opening of this, so far better than Avengers I think. The tutorial, which is extremely pink and blue, is a fairly lengthy thing which introduces you to characters which of course you already know about because of all the movies and stuff init. It's mostly a slightly adjusted take on those movie characters, I say that as if I know what the other versions of the characters from the comic are like. Anyway it reminds me of the movie is what I mean, except the guy who plays Mario isn't in it which is a bummer. But I think it's good, not incredible cause it's hard to get a read of whether the fighting turns into something more than what you see at first. I'll say being able to run a game that looks good at 4k dlss and runs at 60 presents a much better impression than watching a stream that runs at 640p and runs at 15fps. I dunno about the console experience, but I do know my experience right here is pretty good *discreetly flexes* As filler tutorials go I thought it was pretty well paced and I was pretty engaged by it, which is saying something cause it really does feel like a 360 game. But it gets away with feeling like a 360 games cause they don't make 360 games anymore, and 360 games didn't run at 4k with ray tracing *dabs*. One screenshot I wanted to get is the little bear guy standing on tree man's back cause I thought damn I like that, but it was in a really dark room and I didn't get the chance. Anyway the rabbit stands on the tree man's back, that is good. I tried to take screenshots but unfortunately they are all super dark cause of weird HDR nonsense. So imagine these screenshots not looking shit, this is what the game looks like (good, not shit) I can't say that this is like game X with a bit of game Y or anything like that cause it's too early to say. One thing I'll say is that it has a stagger meter for certain boss type enemies. Drax (who destroys) has an ability that induces heavy stagger damage. Gamora (the deadliest) has an ability which deals heavy raw damage. Groot (therefore he is) does stuff with branches, uh traps enemies I think, I dunno. Racoon (not a racoon) does ranged attacks. But to translate it in terms I do understand, Drax is Focus Strike from FFVII Remake, Gamora and Racoon are the big attacks that you do when stagger is put on them. Peter Quill (middle name Joseph), he flies around and shoots stuff. The melee part of his combat feels like shit, but this is the level 1 experience. Very early on he unlocks an ability to do a timed powerful charge shot while his guns recover from their Mass Effect cooldown. Kind of a reload that's active, or something like that. I think another game did a thing like this before, I forget. I can't easily follow the flow of fights but I would say having this run at a high framerate is a must for that reason. It's so messy, the way you queue up the skills is a bit clunky. But that's the level 1 experience. It's a very air dashy type game, like a B tier Platinum games joint or something like that maybe. Anyway I'm engaged by the sum of the parts rather than the constituent ones so I will stick with it. Better than Avengers anyway, well the opening is. Also trust me the game looks a lot better than these screenshots, thank Windows HDR for fucking these captures up. Or maybe the brightness adjustment in the game itself, I might try and look into seeing if I can fix that.

Firstly, I cannot believe that there isn't a thread for this game. I know people bang on an on about this game, so I thought there would be one already. I think it is kind of weird that one of the FF haters is starting this topics as well, but there you go. Right, lets get some things laid out on the table. I hate JRPG's unless they are Pokémon, as that's the only one I have been able to understand the mechanics of how everything works because it is nice and simple to learn, and hard to master. I really hate how everyone goes on about how awesome this series is, all I see is turn based fantasy shite populated by people who have hair the size of a fridge freezer. I had very low expectations of this game, I was expecting to play ten minutes worth and call it a day. However, I was wrong. After persevering with the frankly crippled controls outside of battle, I find myself enjoying this a lot more than I thought I would. The backgrounds still look nice after all this time, and the music is really good so far. The FMV has also held up well for such an old game. the "in the field" graphics and animations are bloody horrible though, it is hard to tell what is happening sometimes as the polygons creating the characters wildly move around the screen. I'm also hating on the save locations, I really hate games like this that make you use save locations instead of letting you go into the menu and save. For all it's short comings, I am liking this game. It has impressed me more than I though was possible and I look forward to spending more time with it, if only to find out first hand what happens with the story. What are your thoughts on this game? Another thing as well please, can we keep this spoiler free? I know certain people die and that, but I don't know when or why, and I would like to find out for myself. Thanks.

It still feels like early days but I'm enjoying this so far. I tried streaming some but my setup seemed to add a few issues to control and framerate, I did a lot better when I wasn't having to play through my capture screen. That said, it's still a Sonic game so I have been launched to my death rather than whatever the next part of the rollercoaster was supposed to be. For all the Breath of the Wild talk it actually reminds me of Mario Odyssey more than anything else. I've no idea if the area I'm in just expands or if eventually it moves you to a new world, but you're on a land mass that's gated, you're essentially playing until you unlock the next bit. There are traditional levels, they're really short, and they're accessed via totems in the main world. You need gears to open these, you get gears from defeating meaningful enemies, I feel like I've got quite a lot now so other than really early on when the game is teaching you, they aren't hard to find. Beating the levels gets you keys, keys unlock the chaos emeralds, doing that seems to progress the story and open more map. The reason it reminds me of Mario are all the little challenges in the game world. Work out the route to a floating platform, beat a horde of enemies, solve a minor puzzle, these all get you things, usually it's the items you need to level up attributes, sometimes it's experience to unlock more skills. There's probably a few too many currencies really, but it does mean that a trip across the map means a hundred diversions because it's very densely packed