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Only played a few minutes before I go to sleep, but yep, pretty sweet so far. One thing I thought was really cool is that one of the menu options is you can change the appearance of the food in game. Could be as simple as you’re veggie or vegan and you would rather not everything be meat, but there’s also some silly options like “Castlevaniaesque” and “monster”. In related and weird news, IGN (or their freelancer) appear to have stolen an indie guy’s video review script. Apparently IGN hav taken down their review while they investigate.

Anyone else picked this up at some point? It came out first two years ago but it came out just after Nuclear Throne which is a very similar game so I passed on it back then, but it was on sale on Switch recently so I picked it up as I'm struggling in a gaming rut and for some reason, I felt like playing this. So the game itself. It's a twin-stick shooter and rogue-like, or rogue-lite if you like. You are tasked with getting to the bottom of the "Gungeon"; a dungeon that is very gun-themed. Bullseyes hang from the walls like sigils, revolver-like mechanisms teleport you around the area and other gun-themed devices litter the medieval style Gungeon. You make your way through shooting enemies (a strange bunch; walking bullets and shells with corresponding guns, knights, ghosts, a mini-gun wielding crow. These are the more normal agitators). To help you through these oddballs you have a diving roll with generous invincibility frames and one of the most varied arsenals of guns but in a video game (citation needed). You have four characters to chose from who start with different weapons, consumable skills and passive skills. Even more of both kinds of skills can also be found in the Gungeon along with the weapons. The Pilot, for example, gets a lockpick which means he has a chance of opening chests without needing a key, but if it fails the lock is broken and the chest is sealed shut. The Space Marine starts with a piece of armour giving him an extra hit point. I'm actually having quite a hard time with it. I can sometimes get to the fourth floor but I'm not sure if that is good or not. I did rescue a guy one run where he says he can let me skip floors but I don't know how far down I have to go before he lets me use the shortcut. I bet it's the fifth floor. And while I mostly do okay in the Gungeon itself the bosses can be a bit of a bullet hell nightmare and its here I usually mess up, even on the first boss on particularly bad runs. But it does have that "one more go" factor which is important in games like this. It's just fun to play, rolling through bullets, flipping a table for cover and shooting a switch that makes a chandelier fall on a bunch of idiots. And seeing what guns come up is kinda fun too, in an "I recognise that!" kind of way. Some guns are your usual, Uzis, AK47s, etc; and you also have wackier ones like t-shirt cannons, giant shells that fire shotguns, a barrel that fires fish, etc; and also references! A taste of what I've come across is Barret's from FFVII's arm cannon, Judge Dread's gun and the Proton Pack. And many more! Definitely one for the rogue-like likers out there.

bit surprised there isn't already a thread for this I played both of the demos, the first one really didn't do a lot for me, but I think it might have been the character I picked. Apparently they're all viable, but when you're fighting with just 1 character I suspect some are more fun to use than others. The 2nd demo, the 3 hour one, did a lot more for me and convinced me to buy the full game The team that made this made Bravely Default, and it shows in the combat system. Each turn you gain a BP, you can use this to double up, or if you save it treble, and quadruple up moves. For a standard attack this will mean hitting 2,3,4 times, for a spell it means it will be much more powerful. You can't go in to 'debt' like in Bravely default, you can only use what you have. The reason the BP is important is because enemies have shield points, you can only reduce their shield by hitting their weaknesses. They still take damage regardless, but if you remove their shield they'll be more vulnerable and will skip a turn. If you knock the shield down at the start of your turn you can effectively have 2 full turns of them in a weakened state. Characters are dealt with in kind of a unique way. You can start anywhere with anyone, play through their story (chapter 1), then set off in to the world. Chapter 2 would require you to be about level 24, so while you're grinding you might as well pick up a bunch of new recruits, the other 8 characters. You can play each of their chapter 1s, which helps level them up, and you unless you're miles ahead at that point. this is where my main issue with the game has started to creep in. I'm about to collect my 5th party member, which means I've got to sit through some fairly dull writing (I liked the merchant's story tbf) for the 4th time, babysit a low level character while I burn magic with my stronger ones, who don't level up as often so don't get a free refill as often, although I should say replenish items are fairly common. When you're picking off weaknesses it can make fights a little drawn out. Basically, it's good, but my initial rush of enjoyment from the first 4 hours or so has started to wain. It's a wearing game just because you're repeating the same gameplay loop over and over

I started this earlier and haven’t exactly loved it, it’s decent enough with the combat being the standout, it definitely has promise and I want to dive further in but the presentation is just godawful all over the shop. The menus, graphics, presentation, stilted animation, everything about it just looks like a PS2 game, I actually laughed quite a bit the first time I saw a wolf and they jerked awkwardly across the floor. All the aliasing buzzing about when you walk anywhere and the horrendous menus don’t help matters either. The translation and voice work isn’t fantastic either but the latter I haven’t thought as bad as I originally thought it would be, it is sufficient and does the job but nothing more, there are the occasional bad delivery of lines and things like that bad nothing too egregious. The combat is fantastic, maybe not quite as much strategy to it and more button mashy at this early stage but it’s so damn fun and very DMC/Bayonetta than typical JRPG. It’s just a shame that the environs are so stilted otherwise they’d be beautiful, the island is a unique setting but there’s something about the way the game looks and runs that can’t help but turn me off it. Still very early days though, once I acclimatise to the graphics I’m sure I’ll be fine if the game is good enough, playing handheld it won’t be as noticeable either.

Refunct is cool as fuck, really chilled It's a first person platformer, which ordinarily is immediately bad game design, but it's very generous with ledge grabs and how likely you are to just fall off something. The game is jumping up pillars to activate switches, which will cause more pillars to rise. What's cool is that you pretty quickly start to learn how to play without being told how to (although it is worth mentioning there is a duck button). You go from carefully lining up jumps to rebounding off. It's really short, like 20 minutes or so, but it is also only 65p on Steam at the minute

It hasn't got to go far to be better than Mario Tennis Ultra Smash which i didn't hate but was just another of these super lite versions of big franchises, like Wii U Smash. This has an Adventure Mode which I think these games need, a little meat in the sandwich as the Tournament only thing has been done many times before. Although it isnt the campaign I was hoping for from Camelot, it seems we've been treated to the best they have to offer with their Mario Tennis and Golf games on the Gameboy/GBA. This has a terrible story attached to it about some old god or something inside a tennis racket that posseses people or some shit, anyway, it's been split in to five bits and scattered accross the lad - who fucking cares. Baiscally you wonder around a map and play tennis. Some spot ont the map are straight up matches against a characters from the Mario universe but the courts have hazards, like piranha plants along the net line that eat the ball and spit it back at you. Other spots on the map are challenges, mostly involving getting the ball back to specific area of the court (like knocking Shy Guys off platforms). Some of this challenges present you with new rackets with different strengths. Surprisingly there are also boss battles. All play rewardeds you with XP so as to level up and become more powerful. I have to mention I hit a difficulty spike pretty early. There was a game where as you had to hit 30 piranha plants within a time limit and i failed 3 or 4 times before I was sucessful. Previous to this I was winning whatever the game threw at me with little effort. Controls. I dunno if anyone played much of ther online tournament a few weeks back? If you did you'll know the game has a few new tricks up it sleeves. I was a little overwhelmed at first, there's a lot to learn but the full version of the game spoon feeds it to you a little gentler. So you have A as topsin, B as Slice Y as Flat. Up and X is Lob, down and X is dropshot. If you hold down the button before the ball gets to you you do a charge shot which is a more powerful version of whaterever button shot you choose to return with. Each time you charge your shot you add power to a meter in the top left corner. You can use some of this power to run, hold down the R button and you'll go in to slow mo and it gives you more of a chance to get to a tricky ball. You can also use it in stars that appear on the court - if you stand in the star and press the R button you can jump up in the air, then the game switches to a first person perspective and you can aim your return anywhere on the court. These are called Zone Shots Let the meter fill up however and you have access to a super shot which is the same as the star shots but you can activate it whenever you like instead of waiting for a star to appear. You can use these powerful shots to almost guarentee a point OR you can wack it at the opponent and see if they can successfuly return it, which is tough. Failure to return, or block as it's called, the shot and you take damage to your racket. If your racket takes too much damage that's it - match over even if you were winning. When it happens to you you'll have a small window which is pretty much when the ball is right in your face to block/return the shot which is a timing i'm starting to pick up. It's fucking handy to know and use as I'm about midway throught the campaign ( i have two bits of the racket and am well on course for the third) and the characters use these shots a lot. Frustratingly so. I do have a few little control beefs. Holding down the button for a charge shot is one, as i tend to line up the directon of the return at the same time. But sometimes after a second or Mario just tends to run in the direction i'm pressing. I thought when you're charging the shot that's it, you're sacrificing movement for a powerful return but that's not always the case. I've lost a fair few points to this. The other thing is that double tapping Y, B or A hits a more powerful shot back. However, double tapping X makes Mario do a trick shit in which he jumps to the left or right. You're supposed to use this to get to a tricky return and you can perform the same action with the R stick. Two beefs in one with this- the R stick is awkward to reach , it's not in a good place in conjunction with the buttons to be ustilised in high intensity gameplay. Also, why use a double tap as a substitution for the R stick? When a double tap of any other of the face buttons has a different function? It just makes it unnecessarily complicated. Anyway, I'm enjoying it but it is tough now. I was losing to Shy Guy and only won because I broke his racket. I felt I got bailed out the shit but also I felt like a bit of a king for pulling it off. I've been getting arsey with it though, i'm afraid of what's around the corner anger wise.

After seeing a glowing review at Eurogamer I thought this would be a nice counter game to the gritty/bleak violence of God of War, and an excuse to pry the Switch away from the kids. You have to bare with me on the premise - you play as a dung beetle who's the new postmaster on the tropical island of Mokumana, who's guardians are being attacked by the 'God Slayer'. After meeting the previous postmaster, your given a postman badge and told to go meet some fellow further on in the island. Navigating the island is a joy, you push a ball (of what I hope isn't shit) about in front of you and there are numerous pinball flippers around that you activate with the L and R triggers, launching you all over the place. You meet various strange characters and creatures along the way, who give you challenges and rewards. One example is having to find six soot balls in a lighthouse, with the lighthouse essentially being it's own pinball table. Completing these tasks gets you new abilities granting access to other parts of the map, a la Metroid/Castlevania. The art style is great, the music is fantastic and it's a joy to play. All in all, well worth the £15 entry fee.

So this doesn't even try not to be Castlevania. It's got the same intro screen and everything. Even the C in "Curse" is the C from Castlevania. This is proper old school retroness - 8 bit music, 8 bit graphics and 8 bit gameplay. If you've played any old Castlevania game you'll know exactly what you're in for and if you haven't you're a cunt and you should fuck off. You only get to pick Normal difficulty from the off but you get to pick between two gameplay variants. Casual in which lives are unlimited and enemy hits don't knock you back and Veteran which plays like the old Castlevania games and offers more of a challenge. You set off on your side scrolling adventure from left to right in control of (i forget his name). He has a sword and that sword has limited range and can only be poked in front of you. You destroy lamps (instead of candles) which drops mostly ammo for sub weapons but also yields hearts for health regen and cash for good old fashioned points! Although they are worth bagging as got an extra life at 20,000. I've only played the first two levels so far but each level has predictably ended in a boss fight. Upon defeat of said boss you unlock a new ally of whom you can control. You can switch between allies with the shoulder buttons and each has their own health bar for tactical switching. The first ally I got was a chick with a whip, a higher jump and a ground slide. This new ground slide technique is handy to go under things that the main guy couldn't (cos for some reason he cant slide). I noticed plenty of opportunities to use this slide on the first level so I guess at some point you can go through it with her, maybe after completion, i dont fucking know. She also has a different set of sub weapons also. I've just beat the second level boss and unlocked a third character so i'm gonna go try him out. The game hasn't been too tough so far, i'm yet to lose a life but I'm expecting that to change. I've enjoyed the music so far as well. Do with that info what you will.

This is out on tablets and PC too, but specifically this is for the Switch version (because I don't think anyone else is going to buy it, let alone on anything other than Switch). It's not a bad version. My understanding is that it potentially has the full database, but because you aren't playing on a powerful PC with a good cpu, you're only supposed to select a small number of leagues to keep the speed up. Even with than it can get a bit framey in handheld mode when you're on the match screen, bouncing between tactics, the opposition's line up, then the game screen, the cursor will skip Controls are a bit weird, the touch screen works in handheld mode, which is mostly how I've been playing it, but it doesn't completely control the game, which I'd assume it does on an actual tablet and the pc can be entirely played with a mouse. So you'll need the physical controls to access menus and bring up context menus, and tbh given when your hands are it's probably quicker As a game though it's pretty good, certainly the most I've enjoyed and wanted to play Football Manager in years. It's easier, and given that United have, on paper, a very good team, I've been banging in the goals, probably averaging close to 3 goals a game... so not very realistic but a nice antidote to Mourinho It's got the 3D match engine too, so you can watch Valencia volleying in a cross for Rom to mess up PSG

First impressions are positive. Only built the RC car and fishing rod so far but they have been fun to put together and seem sturdy enough. Few short vids of our first look. It me.

I started this today and it's really good, although it does have a couple of problems. It's an action rpg, and it's got a few nice ideas in there. You have a standard melee attack and a magic attack, a dodge, which you'll need as you see an indicator of where, and how far an enemy will attack. If I had to throw in a comparison, it's not a million miles away from something like Ys, except smaller. The most notable good idea I like is that there's only limited types of weapons and armour in the game, so if you pick up a duplicate it levels up that weapon. It's random, or seemingly random, what you get, so you might have to switch from a build you like because something else has streaked ahead. What that means is, you might have a sword that does decent damage, but the wand that's just levelled up might do so much more magic damage it makes sense to switch My issue with the game then, and I am really liking Cat's Quest, is that it feels very small. The map gets restricted very early by very powerful enemies. I got a story mission I was warned not to go and do until I'd levelled up a bit, so I had to circle around the same small area for a couple of hours picking up side quests to gain some levels. The game never told me what level I needed to be at to take on that story mission, maybe it does in some menu somewhere, but it meant that when I'd started to run out of side quests, or hit a bit of a wall with them, and went to do the main mission, I pissed all over it The quests almost always involve you going to a point, possibly then to another, fighting some monsters, completing quest. It's fine, some of the set ups are pretty good but then some are kind of repeated. I picked it up fairly cheap, it's not a bad Switch game, not sure it's something you'll play solidly for a week

Started this today, put in about 3 hours. It left a hell of a first impression I must say, absolutely loved what I've played so far. I played 2014's The Stick of Truth and whilst I thought it was very good overall, it lost its way towards the end for me and became incredibly repetitive, leaving a sour taste in my mouth as I limped over the finish line. Being a huge South Park fan and seeing an idea like that executed so well and with all the trademark humour and lore established in the show translated into the game flawlessly was fantastic. Being able to go around South Park and explore every nook and cranny of it, finding chinpokomon and all sorts of mad side quests, it was really cool. But towards the end it became real repetitive and a lot of the reason for that was the combat. It was enjoyable for the most part and quite a bit of fun but towards the end where you're put into challenging fight after challenging fight it felt like a real slog. It just felt too basic for me after x number of hours, it didn't feel as deep or tactical enough as I wanted it to be and just became a chore. Fast forward to 2018 when I finally get round to playing the second South Park game, The Fractured But Whole, and I was somewhat trepidatious as to what to expect. Even though it has been over 3 years since I played the last game the finale left such a sour taste in my mouth that I really didn't know if I was going to enjoy this or not, I thought it would just be more of the same and with Ubi SF taking over development duties I just didn't know whether it would have as much charm and humour as the original game. Thankfully - as mentioned at the introduction, the opening 3 hours of the game I've played today have put all my worries to bed. It has just been an absolute joy to play in every regard, exploring the town again, speaking to all the characters around the town that we know and love. It's just great to be back in South Park again. Probably the best aspect for me though has been the ability to open every door on every house or store and look in a hell of a lot of cupboards for loot, it is just incredibly addicting in a Fallout kind of way, I can't remember an awful lot from the first game apart from the ending, combat and the abortion clinic so I don't remember the first game having this level of loot to find. I remember going to people's housing and exploring the town - looking for chinpokomon especially - but yeah I don't remember there being this level of reward for looking in every draw in a house or store. Another aspect is the little puzzles you come across, some have that metroidvania element to them where you haven't got a certain ability yet so will have to come back later to get to the chest/item just out of reach in a particular locale. That level of exploration, exploring the town and encountering all these little side quests you can pick up like discovering who key'd Randy's car at night or speaking to Morgan Freeman in the Taco stand so he can teach you how to Craft bits and pieces. There's a ton of collectibles too, but the main ones I've found so far are these Japanese-style art pieces called Youi or something like that which are a bit anime looking and quite strange. One of the other new elements is the 'Coonstagram' stuff which encourages you to take a selfie with everyone you can see so you can get more followers - and unlock more missions down the line I presume. So there's another puzzle element of getting someone to have a selfie with you, sometimes it'll be something simple like buying stuff from a vendor but other times you'll have to help Jimmy finish a school project or something like that. There's also this artifact system where you can equip one into a 'hero slot' on your character and it'll give you and your team some kind of boost in combat. Most hilarious one I've found so far is a buttplug I found in Big Gay Al and Mr Slave's house that gave me +35 'might. You can find costumes all over South Park too - of course I got the AC costume with some uPlay units though The aspect that has impressed me the most though and is the biggest improvement from the original is most definitely the combat. I don't remember it especially well from the first game but here it feels SO much deeper and a hell of a lot more tactical with the new tactics grid. The grid enables you and a bunch of enemies to move about turn by turn, using different x, y, x or a abilities but all the abilities require a certain placement in order to attack multiple enemies or knock an enemy back into another for a bonus. A lot of abilities cannot be activated if the targeting square cannot reach the enemies square so placement on the grid itself is key. As well as this there's numerous ailments to consider and AOE damage when certain enemies die, you still have a timed element by pressing A at the right time when taking a hit or doing a move - which fills up your Ultimate meter quicker - but it doesn't seem as full on as the first game and the tactics grid makes everything feel much clearer and less simplistic if that makes sense. A bit more side-scroll XCOM-lite and less Child of Light if that makes sense to anyone So yeah, I really didn't expect to be as impressed as I am with it but it's safe to say it has got me hook line and sinker, cannot wait to dive back in tomorrow. Some pics:

Into the Breach is a game that came from the FTL; Faster than Light guys. Instead of being a grid based real time strategy you can pause and plan out your course of attack, here we're in 3D isometric land where everything is turn based. Also I don't think this is a rogue like, or from what little I've experienced it's not show that hand yet, if it does happen to have some randomness to it. The game plays a little bit like the old turn based war games, if you've played Advance Wars or Fire Emblem you'll feel right at home here. However there are a few differences that sort of make this game unique. The first one is that you only get 3 units. You get a big walking tank that can punch things. You get a standard tank that can fire on anything as long as it has line of sight on the target and you get an artillery that can do indirect fire, helping it arc shots over terrain, but also making it so that it can't attack things directly next to it. So far, so vanilla. The biggest difference is that the way these pieces move and interact with the bad guys that pop up on the map. For instance all the units you have at your disposal can push back enemies a square. This comes in very useful, because if something happens to be in the tile where they would be knocked into, that tiles occupant takes damage as well. Remember this. Another difference is that after each turn the enemies show you directly what they're going to attack. This is where the pushing mobs about the tile set comes important. Sure you could use a tank shell to hit that big enemy up the arse, but that's going to push him right onto the city and give him what he wants anyway. The idea is you read what attack are coming and use this pushing system to save objectives and your own armour. Placing your guys in positions that leads the enemies into grouping up so that you can push them into each other and mountains to hurt them or even get them to attack each other is part of the strategy here. You can also instakill any ground based enemies by pushing them into the water. The final big difference is that the fight you are taking place in only lasts a set number of turns, usually enemies burst from the ground each turn, you are thoroughly outnumbered and the general gist of the game is to survive. You have limited resources and it looks like you're just meant to cling onto the objective before moving onto the next mission. There are sub objectives, some of which say you can kill all of the enemies, but for the most it looks like you'll be keeping the wolves from the door before being whisked off to deal with the next insect eruption. Because of the nature of the skirmishes taking a few minutes before you're moved on it makes an ideal game to play when you've not got much time, I can imagine this being a really good phone game for that reason. Not to say it's without depth because of that, there's going to be plenty of head scratching trying to work out how to smash the fuck out of the attackers without them destroying your buildings and setting everything on fire. It's going to be one of those games that's deceptively simple to grasp but really difficult to master. It's left a good first impressions, maybe not quite as captivating as FTL was when that originally hit, but I think most people will really enjoy it if they're into turn based strategy.

I read Nintendo Life’s review of this at work today and decided to pick it up. So far it’s only been released on the Japanese eshop store. All the western press seem to refer to it as Gal Metal so that’s what I’ve called this thread, although I can’t find any official English title for the game, just the Japanese title ガルメタル (ga-ru-me-ta-ru). I was wondering why it wasn’t translated as Girl Metal, so I checked my dictionary and apparently “girl” is usually written ガール, a slightly longer “ga” sound, so maybe Gal Metal is the best translation. (Side note, Gal Gun is written differently again in Japanese, ギャル - gya-ru.) Semantics aside, it’s a visual novel/rhythm action game. You can play using the joy cons, pro controller or even touch screen I think. I wanted to play with the joy cons as in this video: But the game wouldn’t recognize my joycons (I realised afterwards this was because I had them set as Controller 2, you have it set them as Controller 1 in the Switch controller menu) so I played the first chapter using the pro-controller. For the rhythm-action part of the game, it’s not about matching button presses with on-screen icons, it’s more about keeping rhythm with the song and trying to string together combos, but as long as you are doing that you are free to play however you like (but if you haven’t built up a sufficient score by the end of the performance, you will fail). In the first chapter there were just two button presses introduced, the bass drum and the snare drum (if memory serves), so it was really easy to play on the pro controller. I can’t say I understand what I’m supposed to be doing completely but o got a way high score than required so...so far so good. Later once i connected the joy cons properly I tried it with that, I got a much lower score but it’s the more fun way to play so I think I’ll stick with that for now. But it’s as much a visual novel/manga as it is a rhythm action game. Basically the story is, a group of alien octopuses come to destroy Earth because people from Earth sent a cd of metal music into space which subsequently destroyed the alien octopus planet, because...because that’s their weakness. So they’ve come to exact revenge. They abduct a young boy and girl (the girl is a drummer) and put the boy inside the girl’s body (like in the anime Your Name). The girl whose body the boy has taken over is a drummer in a school metal band, so she basically acts as your teacher. So basically you defend Earth against their attack by performing metal music. Yeah it’s pretty crazy... The reason that I say it’s as much a visual novel as it is a rhythm action game is that there was more more reading than rhythm-action in the first chapter, so your enjoyment of the game (and value for money) will be reduced significantly if you can’t read Japanese. So far there has been no mention of a western release but it’s early days I guess. In terms of the difficulty of the Japanese, it’s pretty similar to the manga I’ve read. I’ve studied around three-quarters of the regular use kanji so I have a pretty good base to work with. I didn’t have to look up new words too often in the first chapter (but the game does have kanji that I haven’t studied and it doesn’t give you the readings for them). But because there are no kanji readings it will be really good reading practice for me I think. The game is pretty learner friendly because the text doesn’t advance until you tell it to, and the writing is large and easy to read on the tv. The art style and animation has been relatively simple so far, it’s obviously not a AAA game. But it’s pretty cool, if nothing else other than a fun way to study some Japanese.

I've seen no mention of this game yet. Like a lot of games like this, it was pushed a bit on the Switch store but it's out on pretty much everything. I thought it looked really damn cool so I bought it. So its a platform kind of game but you don't move in the traditional way. You use the analogue stick to point yourself in the way you want to go and you zip there with a direct trajectory. It's a game you have to really learn from scratch as it's not quite like anything else. When combat is introduced it does vaguely (very vaguely) remind me of PN.03 and I'll take anything that gives me the feeling that game did. Your shot can be aimed the same way as the jump but it has a very short range, though it does have a bit of a spread. It means you really have to get in there to defeat enemies and it makes you really learn this kind of movement the hard way. Yeah, the game is pretty hard, babies. It's kinda preposterous with the plot. As it says in the trailer: "explore a directionless world", and a lot of the messaging in the game is this on the nose. So far I've inspired an artist and a musician to help me and their assistance actually moves parts of the world. But its so earnest I love it. And the one boss I've fought is basically M. Bison's (Dictator for our Japanese readers) disembodied head. There so many games like this at the moment so I think its got lost but I would say it's worth trying. It's a cool game.

Surprised I couldn't find a thread for this... It's been out a while and i'd eyed it up on other platforms but ever pulled the trigger, but finally bought it on the Switch and it's superb. It's a rogue-like where you keep pushing further through a dungeon, unlocking new equipment that makes your life easier for the next run with the big twist being that all movement has to be timed to music and monsters also have their own movement pattern to the beat. The soundtrack's superb as well. It has that 'one more go' factor, and it never feels unfair. I'm still pretty shit at it, and have only made it to the third area so far but it's still throwing numerous surprises at me even in the first few stages, and I can feel myself improving the more I play. It seems the perfect fit for the Switch - a game you can pick up and play for five minutes or a good long session.

Super hard indie platformer? Count me in and watch as I never complete it. This is made by the people who made Towerfall and although it is 2D and retro styled, it’s a completely different thing as it’s a single player game, more like Super Meat Boy. There’s optional collectibles (strawberries) but the thing I find concerning is part of it is gated by other collectibles. Featured in this video by Dunkey: I’m on the third chapter and it hasn’t been too difficult so far but I can see where it’s headed.

Put a fair bit of time into this over the past couple days, think I'm around 5-6 hours in, about halfway through Episode 3. First thing I noticed was the step up in visuals over Rev 1, you can definitely tell this is a newer cross-gen title built for consoles with the lighting, particle effects, enemy designs and a lot of the texture quality being a huge step up from the first game, facial animations are markedly improved as well. The whole game though is vastly different. Rev 1 felt very contained to this one ship, very stuffy and claustrophobic - in a good way, it gave the ship an identity of its own - you do explore other locales sure, but the meat of the game is what happens on that ship with Jill and Chris. This though, feels totally different. You wake up with Claire in this Prison area, find Moira, you've both got these bracelets attached and there's someone listening/watching your every move. It's all very Saw and the look of it is very industrial, there's no other way to put it, it's very grey and rather bland. You do make it out of the Prison after the first Episode and the game picks up after this, but the environs still don't really wow me, everything has a generic kind of look about it that will feel familiar to those that have played RE4/RE5. I definitely appreciate the variation though, but wish the variation wasn't Prison to factory, one grey area after another. You seem to be stuck on this island in the middle of the Ocean, got serious Code Veronica flashbacks playing as Claire and all, but the island just doesn't have as much character as the ship from Rev 1 as of yet. I do like how they've tightened and mixed up the combat though. Being able to switch characters on the fly is great and leads to some cool puzzles along the way, I reckon playing with another human would be fantastic but the AI has done a competent enough job so far. The shooting feels less floaty and the bullet impact on enemies feels far more visceral and satisfying. The inventory management feels much sleeker and easier to pull off too, combining items into various bits and pieces and passing items between the two characters is much improved. So overall, I'm enjoying it, but can't help but feel it lacks a bit of character compared to Rev 1, it's just not that memorable so far, but hopefully it improves. I will say I'm liking the dual plot-lines and time periods, definitely keeps things feeling fresh, just wish you didn't have to repeat a locale with Barry after already going through it with Claire. A few pics:

As i kinda explained in the new purchases thread this is rogue-like RPG dungeon crawl/deck builder mash up that is currently in early access. (it's about 12 quid) When start the game you choose from 1 of 3 characters all of which have different perks and attributes, then another perk/gift much like in rogue-likes/Dark Souls/Hearthstone etc. Your aim is to get to the end of the game without dying as it's perma-death. Game over. I think there currently 3 Acts at the moment and in each map you're given a map and have to chose one of 4 starting points at the bottom, with the boss at the top finishing the act. Once you've chosen you get to pick the next step to move along that path... like this.. - Unknown is Unknown . It's a story event. I could end well (with a new passive perk or something) or badly. - Merchant is a shop where you can buy new cards or items. He usually has some sales too. - Treasure is a treasure chest - Rest you have the option to gain some of your heal back or upgrade a card. - Enemy is a enemy. - Elite is like a mini boss. You see this map even before you set off so you can plan a bit. Do i go after that treasure or have a rest on the other path?.. etc Risk/reward, it's cool. Ok, now the turn-based combat. It's all card/item based. Looks like this.. Like Hearthstone/most card based board games, at the start of each turn the player has a certain about points that they can spend to lay cards. This can be modified with other cards/relics as you progress tho. And like Dominion/rogue likes you start off with very basic cards but after every fight you get to choose 1 of 3 cards to add to your 'deck'. So as you are progress and building your deck, your character is getting better. Enemies/bosses drop loot like money which can be spend at the shop or relics which give you a passive ability. Once you've spent you're points, you end the turn and the remaining cards are put into the discard pile. When your draw pile is empty, the discard pile is shuffled and you start again. That's it basically. It's simple but fuck, it's reeeally good. It merges the deck building with the rogue like stuff really nicely. I wish every turn-based RPG had the same combat/deck building loop this has. It's much more approachable and pick up and play than any card-based video game i've played too. Even more so than Hearthstone. But it still does a lot of the things i like about deck builders. So, yeah if you've ever thought of giving a card game a go but were scared off how impenetrable they can be. Then this maybe the gateway drug. Very addictive. Great game, still in early access too so it should only get better.

So, this is one of the 5 games the wife got me for Xmas. Previous years have been... Tolerable... But this year THQ seem to have gone all in on the need for microtransactions. Unlike earlier instalments, this one has no old school story mode. So no Attitude Era, no Wrestlemania mode, nothing. Just create a character and go have a career. A 60 rated character who regularly fights opponents rated 70 or above. You can upgrade, but the attribute points, and the currency is so rare you're pretty much forced into paying real money to play through the career. I'm currently stuck on a 2-on-1 handicap match, getting hammered every time I attempt it. Gameplay is absolutely brainless. If it was tuned a little better it'd be great fun, and it'd make losing so much easier to swallow too. Graphics... Erm... Sometimes they're fantastic (see John Cena and HHH's entrances), and other times they're awful - see Big E. Sound is a mixed bag too. As you're playing through career you have a background soundtrack, but it's the same 10 songs over and over. There's a Kid Rock song on there I used to quite like. Not anymore. If you're obsessed with the series give it a go, but as far as I'm concerned, fuck WWE 2k18.

I just realised we don't have a thread for this. It came out in Japan in 2014 but only came out over here last year. As you can see by the tags, it's out on pretty much everything bar PC. For anyone that doesn't know, Puyo Puyo is Mean Bean Machine and it mixes that with Tetris. The game modes are insane. You can play against people playing one style while you play the other one (or the same if you like), you can play a weird hybrid mode where the two styles are combined and you will get Puyos and Tetris pieces in the same zone, you can play an alternating mode where you play one style for say 30 seconds and then it switches to the other style, or you can play a puzzle mode where you have to fill in certain puzzle shapes. I played quite a bit in multiplayer over the Christmas break and it gets really fierce and fun. I wouldn't recommend playing online against randoms because fucking hell. You can view replays of other people playing and they are like machines.

Started this earlier. Put in about 2 hours and I think I'm 2/3 of the way through it It is definitely not the longest of games that's for sure. But you know what, it's actually quite fun. The story is hilariously po-faced. It's deadly serious, you have all Sonic friends in there (no Big the Cat though...) and they're all talking to one another like a bunch of cool animal pals, but also forming a deadly serious resistance against Eggman's forces who've taken over the World. It's nonsense and I can't take it seriously at all, at least they tried, I guess? But yeah, the levels themselves are pretty cool. You have the avatar levels, classic sonic levels, modern sonic levels, modern sonic + avatar duet levels and bonus stages. Avatar levels you can use a weapon - by pressing ZR - which allows you to plough through hordes of enemies, you also have a grappling hook which allows you to swing from hanging sphere to hanging sphere to get through a level. Classic Sonic levels is basically old school Sonic stuff like from Generations etc. no lock on, no boost and a bit more platforming. Modern Sonic has all that boosting, lock on, grind rails and more of an emphasis on speed. Lastly the Sonic + Avatar duet levels are like a mix of the Modern Sonic and Avatar elements mentioned above, you both work in tandem boosting through enemies, using the grappling hook and weapon, there's even this cool double boost thing which sends you into a batshit crazy-fast run but that's been pretty rare. The environs are classic sonic fayre, there's a chemical hill zone, a green hill zone, a casino zone and a zone that looks like that one from Sonic: Lost World - Mystic Jungle or some shit? They get repeated way too often, there's been some stages where I've had a double take - wait, I've been here before? - but you just kind of go with it and it'll always have some new spin to it or slightly different course. This may sound like sacrilege, but I always liked Sonic for the speed and not really for the platforming. This succeeds at that in spades, whenever you're boosting down a level, grinding on rails or generally going incredibly fast then it's an absolute ton of fun, it can't help but put a smile on my face. So yeah, very much in the Sonic Adventure mould, but less ambitious than that I'd say and at least you don't have to do fishing with Big the fucking Cat, so there's that. But yeah, it's not fantastic by any means, but if you can get it cheaply enough it'll give you an afternoon of fun at least.

Gorogoa is a hand drown indie puzzle game that has been in development for years and years and was finally released today. It's gotten some very good reviews. Basically the game involves you interacting with pictures and moving them around in order to cause something to happen or open a way forward etc. It starts off easily enough but soon gets devilish. I've played it for an hour but am well stumped on Chapter 3 so I've taken a break, but I won't give up... Lovely game so far.

I saw Ed playing this earlier, I think a few might like it. The easy description is twin-stick shooter meets clicker. Here’s a video as it explains it much better than I can. It’s out on all the usual suspects but I bought the Switch version as I was looking for something addictive to replace my Stardew addiction. It’s pretty good so far though hasn’t quite got its claws into me. Comparing my current play to that video, my guns are underpowered and I’m not constantly getting money from the planets like he is so I suspect that’s an upgrade somewhere along the way. There’s a knowing-ness about the guy that pops up and gives you tool tips. One of his lines was, “to all the people that find my voice annoying, you should’ve heard the ones we discarded”. You can also turn his voice off in the menu.

I don't know anything about the main game mode, only played the free battle royale rip off mode. Played that mode loads. It's a rip off of that playerunknown battlegrounds (pubg) game, I'm not too up on that game but the main differences I think are that there are no vehicles in this and you can build stuff in this. There's some controversy about ripping off the idea, and maybe some other stuff, I'm not sure really. I guess the first copies of something popular always get more stick. On the plus side this game has sold me pubg and I'll be getting it on Xbox. Anyway back to fortnite, I think it's great, especially in a team, you start in the party bus with about 100 people with only a pick axe, look at the map, pick a spot to drop in, if there's people going to the same place do you try to get there first and get a gun and fight straight away, or divert to somewhere else. the map constantly shrinks in size as the storm covers the island, loot is random. I prefer to start near the outside in usually less populated areas, running in with the storm there's less likely to be people behind you, but you probably won't get as good loot as if you'd gone to a town. When you see someone do you fight or hide, there's constant decisions like this going on, it's always different and often cool stuff happens. when you get to the end do you build a fort or try and hide. I'm not sure I'm really explaining it very well but then apparently loads of people watch pubg on the internet so everyone probably already knows. I think my friend said this, it sums it up well saying it's a bit like playing a zombie/apocalypse survival film. The building works well too, you can get some really impressive structures people have built at the end. Anyway yeah it's really good, especially for free. Anyone else playing it? Oh yeah I think I should give them some money, but currently I don't like any of the outfits and they're about a tenner each or something, which puts me off, if it was maybe a pack of 5 for £15 or something, and I liked a few of them, I think something like that I'd be much more likely to spend.