Search the Community

Started the campaign on this earlier today and have had an absolute blast with it so far. The feel of the guns and the sound design is just absolutely superb, you can hear and feel each individual shot as you make it and feel the impact much than before when you kill an enemy. The main new addition from previous games is being able to stick, take cover and peek by clicking the right stick in to peek and pick off enemies. It drops you right in the action right away and can feel a little too quick and confusing at first, it really rams the plot down your neck and you’re a bit like ‘hang on...who’s that?’ But you soon just go with the flow really, the Villain hasn’t really been hyped up as much as previous games and I’m still a bit like ‘I’m meant to hate that guy?’ But yeah it gives just enough motivation and slap bangs you right in the action. Still piecing things together now but and trying to understand some bits and pieces but the world building is decent enough without being awe inspiring. The levels themselves have all been really varied. There’s two set in a European city, a couple set in a fake middle-eastern city at different times of the day and one set in the fake Kazakh mountains. I guess nothing too crazy or out there in terms of CoD but they’ve absolutely nailed the atmosphere in all these missions, possibly better than they ever have before. I don’t wanna give too much away and spoil things for people but it definitely pulls no punches in terms of subject matter. It definitely seems to be much more aware of the horrors of war than some previous titles and the subject matter reflects this, featuring burning bodies, civilians being shot, war crimes being committed and other atrocities (and I’m only on the 5th or 6th mission!). Had a few technical issues with the cutscenes running at about 1fps every now and then - but I seemed to rectify this somewhat by switching to borderless full screen - a few weird AI issues and clipping issues with enemy soldiers but apart from this the game has ran more or less flawlessly on my new GPU, it looks absolutely phenomenal. Some pics:

I’m about three hours into this. It’s the second game by Sam Barlow who made Her Story, and it’s the same style as Her Story but with more characters/actors. I’m enjoying it. The story isn’t super fascinating but it’s engaging enough. The music is atmospheric and very well done (I don’t remember music at all in Her Story) and there are some other nice touches that add to the atmosphere of the game. And unlike The Red Strings Club, Telling Lies isn’t stingy with achievements. One achievement in particular made me smile. Achievement spoiler not a story spoiler:

No one else playing this? I got it on release and I’m fucking loving it. The track design is really inventive and a step above what they’ve done before. I’ve not played enough to say how they stand to multiple plays and bettering times but they’re very promising so far. Feels as good as ever and there seems to be loads of content, I’ve been playing a few hours and unlocked loads of tracks and only just got to the medium tier, this is where it really picks up for me personally. The medium and hard tracks are where the best ones are in the previous instalments IMO. The tracks have some good challenges to encourage repeat plays apart from times as well. Like fusion where they ask to not brake or no leaning, this has similar objectives that pop up but they seem more manageable and more logically set out. Couple of small complaints. The progress for unlocking bikes seems incredibly glacial after the first one. Convenient that’s theres now a way to buy them with real money now... loot boxes, while easily ignored, still annoy. The map layout can ruin the flow sometimes, just adding a bit too much time and too many button presses between plays compared to previous instalments. By far my biggest complaint though, Ubisoft Club! It forces you to link to it to be able to access the leaderboards and have the classic ghost times show (real people not the medal ones). I think that’s really really fucking shitty hiding one of the best features - which was always front and centre and a highly regarded part of the game - behind making you sign up to their shitty club thing. Arseholes. Overall though, the game is brill. If you like Trials get it immediately. Preferably on Xbox and give me some more times to race against!

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.

Well. This isn’t very good at all. I’m old enough to have played the original Doom back in the day, and loved Duke Nukem 3D. Both of which are still really fun today. This? Not so much. It’s a prequel to 3D Realms’ Bombshell, which as it was PC only, I never played that. It’s based on the Build engine, and I’ve seen one review that claimed this is “one of the best Build games ever” and “one of the best first person shooters in recent memory”. I would present a counter argument: “It’s neither of those, and is boring as fuck”. The plot? Pretty much non existent. Apparently someone spilled the main characters drink, which pissed her off to the extent that she seeks revenge. Is there a cutscene that explains that? No. I only found out later that there’s a single screen of expositional text, buried in the options screen. The weapons? Your typical bog-standard pistol/shotgun/SMG. Maybe you unlock more creative weapons later on. I wouldn’t know, as I couldn’t be arsed to play past Level 3. The enemies? Generic trench coat dudes, mixed with annoying spiders that rip through your health bar like it’s not even there. I’ve seen some claims that “it’s funny”. Three levels in, and I’ve seen no attempts at humour whatsoever. Sure, there’s plenty of secrets. But actual humour, such as the type seen in Duke 3D, and Shadow Warrior? Non existent. I reached level 3, repeatedly died to some cheap sections, and found myself thinking the immortal question, “Why am I bothering with this?”. So I fucked it off. Modern audiences will find it dated and boring. People with experience in the genre will find it boring in comparison to much better titles. It’s just not very good.

So this looks like a top down rpg with snes style graphics, bit like a 2D zelda game but with twin stick shooter combat, and also with punching and blocking. and it's also a fake mmo game. it's sort of great, i really like the puzzles in the dungeons, and environmental puzzles in the towns and other areas, although they can be a bit convoluted sometimes. the puzzles are a lot of firing stuff that bounces off walls, moving blocks, switches, elemental powers, jumping, lots of jumping, stuff like that, they're very well done, although the dungeons go on a bit too long. the puzzles sometimes require really tight timings too which can be frustrating but there's a slider to make it easier and give yourself more time. it looks and sounds good too. there are problems though, the layout of some of the areas/towns are super complicated, which makes for interesting puzzles for how to get some pickups etc, but for example last night i just wanted to get to somewhere to start the next part of the main quest and i'd been there before and was told where to go but it still took maybe 20 mins of randomly wandering around to find, and handing in quests in certain towns, even though you usually get a description of the area, can take ages to find whoever gave you the quest. the map is not great. you can fast travel mind but only to certain places. and the combat is a bit of a mixed bag for me, it can be fun sometimes but can be pretty hard and annoying too, there are assists to make it easier - which i maxed out and still found the second level boss really hard. so not sure i'll be able to finish it if it keeps getting much harder. also you don't have to grind much to level up enough if you fight pretty much every enemy you see (although maybe i should to make the combat easier) - i didn't do this at the start and kept being asked are you sure you want to do this, you need to prepare more. i think it's been out for a few years on pc, and been on pc gamepass for a while, but it's recent console release, and that it's supposed to be good, got me to give it a go - i'm playing on pc gamepass. thought it would be reasonably short and i'd be able to finish it before origami mario but i was wrong, apparently it's 40 to 80 hours if you do optional stuff. i'm about 18 hours in. still enjoying it so i'll try and stick at it and finish it if it doesn't get too difficult. there's a news thread with some videos here: https://www.mfgamers.net/index.php?/topic/42274-crosscode/ edit - forgot another problem - the graphics make working out what level you're on and if you can jump to somewhere or not quite difficult which can lead to a lot of trial and error.

Sank a fair bit of time into this now. From what I understand, it began as an early-access expansion to the awesome Superhot, until it’s reached the stage it’s at now. If you haven’t played Superhot (and you really should, because it’s bloody amazing), for the most part I’d recommend this. Enemies move when you do, so each level plays out like a puzzle, with you figuring out the best way to clear a room of enemies. Melee enemies aren’t too much of a problem, but enemies with guns can quickly ruin your day. Luckily you can chuck something at an enemy, which will make them throw their gun in the air. Enabling you to steal it, and kill them with it. Fun times So, what does MCD add to the mix? Quite a bit really. You gradually unlock extra abilities, such as having more health, more ammo, being able to bounce bullets off walls, or sending another bullet flying out of an enemy if you kill them with a headshot. Catch is, you have to choose what ability you want to start with. Prior to each run (generally about 6 arenas), you can choose from one of the perks you’ve managed to unlock. Then after every couple of arenas, you get to choose another perk. Get to the end of that run, and you’ll unlock another ability. Die, and you have to start the run all over again. The difficulty can be a bit all over the place. The arenas in each run are randomly generated, and where you start in that arena is also random. You might end up in a tough situation right from the start. And as you unlock more perks, there’s an increased chance the one you want may not show up, as that’s also randomly chosen for each run. About halfway through the game, new enemy types get added. Some can only be killed by hitting a specific part of their body. Some carry weapons that you can’t steal. Some explode when killed and send lethal shrapnel out, meaning melee kills are to be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately towards the end, some Boss type characters are added, and they are total bastards. For one thing, they’re indestructible. All you can do is dodge them, and try to finish the arena by killing all the other enemies as fast as possible. Might sound simple. But when you’re getting shot at from multiple enemies, these bosses are a real pain. Usually, rushing around is a good way to lose health. With a boss in the mix, rushing is your only option. The bosses also appear totally at random for each run, and may not show up at all. The later runs can consist of 7/8 arenas, increasing in difficulty. So it’s a massive ballache to be doing well on a run, only for a boss to randomly show up and send the run flying out the window. Its tough at times. But it’s definitely got that “one more go” factor. Oh, and apparently one of the trophies required for the Platinum, is to get to the end of the game, perform an update, and leave that running for 7 actual hours. Haha haha fuck off.

Chose this as my free game for NHS staff. Already happy I went for this. It looks absolutely glorious, and the story is definitely interesting. A space station on the Moon was providing a rapidly deteriorating Earth with power. Until the station went unexpectedly silent, and all contact was lost. 5 years later, you’re assigned to head to the station, and find out what happened. Looking forward to seeing how the story develops.

I'm not very far in, I just thought there should be a thread for it. It's a Crpg, not sure what that stands for, but it's the kind of rpg where the game pauses when combat starts so you can select who to attack and what with, or just let it play out in real time. A bit like Dragon Age, only more fun As a pc game, unless I'm missing something, it seems to be missing a few things. There's no graphics options that I can tell, and I have an issue with the mouse cursor not moving the screen around when I go towards my 2nd screen, but you can use the cursor keys for that seems alright, recent events suggest that potential party members don't have a long lifespan around me, not my fault. On that note, there's text options in the game, choices and the like, one very early on got someone killed, I think it was unavoidable that someone was going to die, but on well The plan id to play the vast majority of Easter, should be fun

Played an hour of this so far and agree with the above. It's very Souls in combat, but if those games disagree with you due to the lack of direction, this is more like a proper action RPG with main quests, side quests and a compass type thing in the UI that shows where you need to head to do your thing. I have no idea what's going on in the story as I wasn't really paying attention, but it also seems a bit intentionally vague as well. Art style seems cool, but not sure how I feel about the lack of faces.

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is an absolutely delightful RPG inspired by Paper Mario. It's an indie title developed by Moonsprout Games (who I have never heard of) and has been on Steam since November last year, and has just come to Switch, PS4, and Xbone. I've put around 5 and a half hours into and am really enjoying myself. I'll write more later, but I'm struggling to type right now.

Hyper Light Drifter was one of those games funded way back in the hey day of Kickstarter in 2013 (and eventually released this year). They had a goal of $27,000 and raised $645,000. It's not hard to see why when the game looks like this: I've played 90 minutes so far. The game is clearly inspired by games like Zelda, Metroid and Dark Souls. Characters don't speak and there is no text in the game so basically you learn about the world from your interactions with it. The difficulty of the game is certainly pitched at challenging. It's not one hit kill like Titan Souls (a game HLD resembles a lot) but at the same time I've already died a few times. Especially in the dungeon like areas you warp down to in elevators. Exploration is very Zelda like and there are lots of places to find off the main path. The audio is quite minimal in the game.

Picked this up last week after reading lots of glowing impressions and very positive reviews. It definitely hasn’t disappointed that’s for sure, I’ve had an absolute blast with it for sure and it’s definitely one of the best platformers I’ve played in recent years. The game takes on two dimensions. The 2D side-scrolling platforming takes up the majority of your time with it and I think the easiest way to describe how it looks, feels and plays is heavily inspired by Retro’s DKC series and Rare’s original DKC series, seeing the game at a glance in motion you’d be mistaken for thinking it’s one of Retro’s games. From the roll Yooka-Laylee do to the hidden coins dotted around the map, the similar way Laylee takes a hit through a level, the hidden doors into puzzle rooms, even the iconic barrels that rocket you around certain platforms. There is an awful lot of crossover here. Some may worry it’s a poor imitation or an uninspired clone but I assure you, to play, it’s every bit as good as it’s DKC counterparts. Worth noting there’s no rocket or mine-cart levels yet though. The second dimension to it and the biggest difference is the world map. With this the World Map is incredibly interactive and inviting, almost a game unto itself. It features a rather large Zelda-esque map filled with charmingly different locales, Pagie challenges, little puzzles to find tonics and new areas, little caves and mysterious little nooks and crannies. By changing the landscape in some way by doing the Pagie challenges you often reshape the landscape to unlock new areas to explore and alter the makeup of a previously unlocked level. A level variation is then created whereby a level can become frozen, overgrown, invaded by new enemies etc. Essentially creating an almost entirely new level to explore based on the outside environment of the world map and where the level marker is placed. The way it feels to play is incredibly reminiscent of the DKC games during the 2D levels, it just feels so incredibly tight to play and definitely has that same difficulty curve. But I think the Interactive World Map is almost just as compelling, you can completely lose yourself in the map just wandering around trying to figure where things fit together and where certain paths will take you. These two dimensions create an incredibly cohesive whole. If you’re getting bored of doing the levels then you can just wander off and explore to your hearts content, if you’re bored of exploring you can enter a level of platforming bliss in seconds. My only real criticism with it would be the level design really. The actual platforming is sublime but some of the level designs themselves are a little generic and nowhere near as joyful, varied, distinct and charming as the likes of DKC. I highly recommend it though, to anyone that’s into tough 2D platformer’s this is nirvana.

To celebrate the home release of The Mummy starring Tom Cruise, Wayforward have made a "demastered" game based on the events of the film. What this actually means is using this license got them money to make whatever they wanted within budget. They just went ahead and made a 2D "Metroidvania". And boy is it loosely based on the film. It harks back to a time, in the 90s, where video game adaptations took a lot of liberties. I remember one from personal experience. I rented the Megadrive Universal Soldier game a few times as a kid, I liked it quite a bit. I actually played it before I saw the film and was kinda disappointed Jean Claude Van Damme never turns into a Morph Ball, dropping bombs, shooting monsters and Dolph Lundgren wasn't 30 feet tall at the end. And is Universal Soldier a good action film? I feel like its never talked about when either actor's work is brought up (the game looks bad from looking it up again to check it wasn't some fever dream). Sorry, going off topic. The Mummy Demastered! It's kinda cool, I guess. It wears its influences clearly on its sleeve. It's laid out like Super Metroid, or maybe more like the more recent GBA games. Something about enemy layouts and patterns are more Castlevania and movement and controls lean towards Contra. It really can be broken down like that in a worryingly accurate way and also that it is based on a property like The Mummy means it does lack an identity of its own. The only sort of unique thing it does is you control a characterless grunt, and if he dies he actually does die and becomes undead, and you have to deal with them to get your stuff back (Like ZombiU I suppose). And they even did something similar in their own Alien game they made for the DS (so not that unique then...) I don't even think the pixel art is up to their usual high standard, but the music is surprisingly great. It's also just not that fun to play. Well, it can be, but I find its a little too much of a chore to get around with back tracking and respawning enemies, which is staple of the genre, but like I said, the conflicts maybe take a little too long so become a chore. I think I'll stick it out. I'm a little lost at the moment, which is surprising as it does hold your hand a bit in terms of telling you where to go but it just hasn't told me I need an ability I don't have yet to progress.

Its pretty tough. Same sort of progress as Demon Souls, so see that thread for the gist of this game. In case anybody plays this and is really stuck, i'll share what i know so far:

This is a Limbo/Inside kind of deal, more Inside but there would be no Inside without Limbo, you know? You play a young girl (so I read, it's in no way apparent) that awakens in the dark with a lighter as a solitary possesion and a raincoat on her back. Then it's all on you. It's dark and ominous, mostly slow paced. You make your way throughout the game, slowly discovering the place where you are seemingly trapped and avoiding/running from it's inhabitants. There are stealth sections that arent too long but there are a few of them, I actually enjoyed them. There are also running sections which can be a little frustrating if you fail as you have to do the whole thing again but they job, they're a little scary and come at the right times. Music is pretty cool as well. The only downside for me was the camera angle. It's set in the foreground and as usual it makes depth perception a bit of a pain sometimes, I had a few avoidable deaths because of it. I don't know if it's just because it's the more recent title I've played but I felt like I enjoyed it more than Inside. It's just as mysterious but it just felt like it was a tighter game. I beat it in two sittings so it's not long, maybe four hours although there's an achievement for beating it in less than one hour so that's obviously possible when you know what to do well enough. Recommended.

seemingly the gaming press' favourite game ever, and it's actually not bad so far. As a highlight from the first 3 levels I've done, I jumped out of a plane and caught a girl, then as we were parachuting the plane tried to ram us, so I told her I was going to shoot the window, kill the pilot, kick the bad dude in the face, grab another parachute then jump back out of the plane and catch her again. Sure enough that's what happened and it was fucking awesome Beyond the set up things I'm less convinced. The gun play is fine, though it could do with more aim assist I think, and a melee attack button would be nice rather than having to switch out (which is admittedly just a button press). I've yet to do any real GTA stuff, a few minutes driving but that's about it, but I should be at that point now. One problem I have encountered, and I think this is down to A. Playing via OnLive and B. playing via OnLive wirelessly. The driving wasn't great. You aren't punished for killing people, or at least I haven't been, nor for accidents, but I found myself correcting a lot and having crashes caused by the AI drivers. But yeah, compared to the rest of the game it was very jerky (though it might also explain the feel of the shooting) I can see why people love it and I'll definitely be putting in a bit more time over the weekend

I'm only a couple of missions in so far. Very much what it said it was - a Diablo clone in a Minecraft skin. Very simple, at least so far. The reviews have been all over the place, from slagging it off, meh, to highly recommended. Early on, seems fine to me. It's on GamePass so worth a download regardless.

I very briefly tried some of this yesterday on PC. I will say you can tell that this is a 8 year old game, especially by how its graphics menu operates. You can't set rendering resolutions in game, you do it via the launcher in 'environment settings'. Which actually doesn't set the rendering resolution at all, you have to edit a configuration JSON in the documents folder. Which doesn't always work. It also doesn't run super well in the lobby. I have a 9700k and it constantly hitches when there are players getting loaded in, it runs on DX9 or something. Also when I loaded a main mission the game crashed immediately. However when it worked it seemed semi interesting. It's more of a hack and slash MMO than what I usually play. The first boss is an 'attack the weak spot' affair and you time button presses to do extra damage or whatever. You eat healing items, so I think everyone is a DPS in this game basically. I've yet to do a group mission (I need to be level 5). I want to at least do a few of those. I've a lot of time off due to COVID cost saving measures so I hope to actually put a decent dent into this at some point. Someone on ResetEra tells me you really need to stick with it until level 40 to see what it's about, so lets see about that I guess. I think this is on Xbox now as well. If you want to try it on PC you have to chance your Windows region first to US to find it on the windows store. (I could not find an existing topic for this)

I've only played the first couple of bounties, but so far I'm really liking this. As per the trailer, it captures that 80's violent action film vibe really well. The 16-bit style graphics look really good, and the the synth soundtrack is great too. It has tons of character. Gameplay wise, it's a run and gun platformer. You fire forwards in the direction you're facing, you have a jump, a dash and a thrown weapon, and can duck or take cover from enemy fire in doorways. You have a pistol weapon with infinite ammo, and can pick up more powerful sub weapons with limited ammo, or a melee weapon. Each bounty (level) is a short action platforming section that leads up to your target, which is a mini boss fight. It's fairly straightforward, but is smooth and plays very well. I've only tried one player character so far, so don't know if they have gameplay differences. It's Epic exclusive on PC at the moment. With the £10 coupon thing in their sale going on right now it only cost me £7.99.

This is this month's PS+ game. Its been on my Switch list but I'll have it here for now. It's been a good, chill game to play at during these times and I reckon I can do better than those that run things now. Its kinda cathartic. Yeah, my first attempt I fucked up the water lines and poisoned everyone but it's a learning process... I've built a fairly well functioning city. Its a modest little place but everyone's happy and healthy. It's bustling and pretty green; it's nice. I've bought up some more land to expand but I need more money to build. I could really do with a university as occasionally a place goes out of business due to my undereducated population. But industry keeps complaining when I tax the dirty, polluting fucks. Maybe they're just mad because there was a point their building kept burning down and fire engines couldn't get to them because of my incremental and patchy expansion. It is a bit of a mess. But my next section will be city planning perfection.

Started playing this this evening. @Nag will be pleased to know the servers are still a bag of shit. Once it finally installed I completed the first... Mission? Then it logged me out and proceeded to get itself stuck. The game play seems like a lot of fun though.

Ok, so I wasn’t sure about this one. Sure, the Predator license is ideal for a quality gaming experience. But I was a bit weary, as the team’s previous game, Friday The 13th was a mixed bag. A fun concept, let down by a toxic community, general jankiness, and lack of consistent support (though that was due to the court battle relating to the franchise). So, I downloaded the demo for this last night. And it’s definitely made a good first impression. There’s no team-killing for a start, something that constantly ruined the experience for Friday. You have a choice of either Fireteam (4 humans), or Predator. The fireteam has to complete various objectives (hack computers, take over control points). Multiple enemy AI will try to stop you, so it’s most effective to team up, and defend objectives when you’re capturing them. It plays like pretty much any FPS, with your typical selection of weapons (Assault Rifle, Shotgun, Pistol). Firefights can feel pretty tense, especially if an alarm gets triggered and you start getting swarmed with enemies. Then....you hear THAT sound. The tell-tale clicking of the Predator. Or it’s cloaking device activating. Or worst of all, see the red beam of its laser cannon pointing directly at you. At that point, all hell breaks loose. The Predator takes quite a lot of damage to take down, spraying recognisable green blood all over the place. Taking it on, one on one, is an extremely bad idea. If you get downed, there’s a chance your team can get you back up. Unless the Predator rips your spine/head off. Though that’s a gamble, as in doing that, you’re locked in place for several seconds, giving the rest of the team time to pump the Predator full of lead. Once the Predator finally dies, two things can seem to happen. If you’re quick enough to shoot it in the head after pulling it’s mask off, you can capture its body. Though you’ll get attacked by a ton of mercenaries for a few minutes, who can shoot up the body and decrease its value. Or, the Predator activates it’s self-destruct mechanism. A large red circle appears on the map. Anyone left in it after it detonates, is going home in a matchbox. If a member of the fireteam is killed, it’s possible to respawn them by “calling for reinforcements”. Which involves legging it to the specific radio point on the map, and defending it for a short time before your team-mate respawns. Though again that’s a gamble, because if the Predator is attacking you, you’ll have your hands full as it is. I spent last night purely as Fireteam, and had a bloody great time with it. I played as Predator for the tutorial, obviously it’s more complicated to play in comparison to Fireteam. Practice will certainly help, no doubt. There’s also a decent ammount of customisation options for both sides. Some are locked behind level progression, others in lootboxes. Lootboxes are earned in game, or bought with in-game cash. The game seems quite generous with money, and duplicate items give a decent bit of cash. Overall, I really enjoyed my time with this. More than I thought I would to be honest. I’ll certainly sink some more time into it over the weekend. And I had that much fun playing it with Gary, that I’ve preordered the full game. Well, I’m hardly spending money on petrol travelling to work for the next few weeks.

I know no one's probably interested in this game on here, but thought I'd put up some impressions nevertheless. Been playing this since Wednesday, I'm 19 hours in, Level 6. My first 6-10 hours with the game weren't great I must say, the start of the game is just awful, the first two missions just don't give you a great introduction to the characters, the story or London at all, you're thrown in at the deep end with a Piece of Eden being mentioned within the opening hour and then left head-scratching afterwards. Once you get into London things get a little better, but mandatory mediocre story missions continue, still tutorialising a lot of stuff, showing you how to liberate areas, do gang wars etc. through the story missions (like in past AC games). Once you're set loose in London things get a lot better, and the game pretty much leaves you to explore, but the side-missions just feel a bit more formulaic and less free-form or interesting than in Unity, they're also required to 'conquer' areas and rid them of 'Blighter' control, rather than just having to synchronise areas in past games. I know they weren't to everyone's cup of tea but I loved the Paris Stories missions in AC:Unity and the Murder Mystery stuff, but here it almost feels like they've pulled everything back to a more simple, methodical approach, with less heart and soul and more formulaic busywork for the player to do. Unfortunately, the city just doesn't feel that interesting either, Paris (in AC:U) was so vibrant with so many unique, interesting areas with their own distinct personalities, the art design in that game was phenomenal as well, but here the areas I've spent the most time in so far (Whitechapel, Lambeth, Southwark) are all kind of similar and nondescript in their design, there's loads of workhouses, factories, loads of shack-type houses (I swear the assets were just ripped from AC:U), markets, rows and houses etc. that just repeats ad nauseum and just becomes a big sprawl of nothingness and devoid of a lot of personality other than 'looks a bit Londony'. I will say though that the 'The Thames' area is amazing, with a load of different ships making their way up and down the Thames all carrying various different materials and going about their business, it's the only really unique area I've explored thus far, and almost impossible to traverse without the new grappling hook (more on this below). I did have a quick run through The Strand earlier though and that was pretty cool, seeing Nelson's Column and Trafalgar Square for the first time was surprisingly awe-inspiring, didn't find the Mall or Buck House yet though, may have a look for them tomorrow. The map itself seems much smaller than Paris too, Paris just seemed bloody huge and this seems quite small really in comparison, maybe they are the same size in reality, but there's only 6 Boroughs in this and I'm sure there were many more than that in Paris in AC:U. The two biggest changes in Syndicate though are the Carriages and the Grappling Hook, the Carriages work surprisingly well, are very well implemented and work well in missions and side-missions, they handle alright as well, like cars in other games really, no better or worse than the handling of a car in Far Cry or something I reckon. The Grappling Hook though, I'm not sold on, it's cool and it is convenient now to be able to just fire this thing and climb to the top of a building, and you definitely need it to cross the wide streets a lot of the time, but unfortunately I just think its implementation makes AC lose some of its charm, to me anyway, instead of looking at a Viewpoint, thinking 'how do I get up there' you just hammer LB until it shoots up, and when it doesn't want to attach it's just frustrating. It's implementation is nowhere near as handy as Arkham City/Arkham Knight, and you definitely can't rely on it to work all the time, when you need it to, but it has its place I guess and is used to balance the wide-streets and lack of ropes across buildings in this, I'm sure Ubi will make it better in the future as well. They've dialled back the whole collectibles stuff from Unity too in this, the map is back to the pre-Unity set-up, so you can't peer into buildings and look for collectibles by tilting the map, the maps not in 3D, and the way they indicate the level of a chest or other collectible is that is shows up bright when you're on the right level, rather than the Unity method. Jacob and Evie are cool though, they're probably the highlight of the game, I've spent the majority of my time with Evie, but Jacob is a cheeky chappy with a big mouth and jack-the-lad persona, and Evie is the more sensible 'let's think this through' type, the dialogue between the two is pretty cool and the dynamic works, some of the best Protagonists in an AC game I think. Despite all the relative disappointments, I am still enjoying it, but nowhere near as much as Unity or AC4 at the moment, and I can't see that improving any the more hours I put into the game.

I don't usually sit down and play a game for two hours when I'm trying it for the first time but I've just done that with this game, the kickstarted "classic point and click adventure" from Ron Gilbert and co. This game is great. It's funny. Of course it has references to previous adventure games. It looks lovely and everything works really smoothly. There are two difficulty modes, hard and casual, but they read more like normal and "simplified". You're not allowed post in this thread if you chose casual. Anyway, I don't want to spoil anything that's happened in the opening couple of hours but I'm strapped in for the ride.