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Played roughly five hours of this over the weekend. It's very similar to the first game to the point where I was thinking of just hijacking that other topic, but I'll play by the rules. When I say similar, I mean that you play as the same character, in the same world, meeting up with the same NPCs. It's been too long for me to remember if the world is actually 1:1 or rather some sort of "remake", but I think it's the latter. The story is a bit weird (alien invasion, protagonist gets infected, mumbo jumbo) and there's absolutely zero explanation as to why he has to start from scratch again in terms of skills and abilities, which I actually found very charming in an unapologetic 'I'm sequel to videogame!' kind of way. The biggest difference to 1 so far is that you don't start off as a walking paper cutout. Sure, most of the enemies can and will kill you, but against mutated rats and insects you actually stand a chance. I see this as neither a good nor a bad thing. It's obviously designed in a way to be more approachable and short-term rewarding, but I actually enjoyed the feeling of being at the absolute bottom of the food chain in Elex 1 and having to rely on Quest XP to level up or companions to do the dirty work for you. But I realise just as many if not more people will prefer being able to swing a pipe and do actual damage from the first hour onward. There's a couple of cool little details I noticed about NPCs. For one, they use that Uncharted system where, if someone in your party gets interrupted during dialogue because a combat encounter happens, they actually finish their lines later when everything has settled. There was also one cool moment where I saw two NPCs talking to each other and I pressed the button to talk to one of them. She then said I shouldn't interrupt her, finished her discussion, and then went back to me to scold me before the actual dialogue branch started. I've actually never seen that in an RPG, or any game for that matter. It also negatively influenced my standing with her, as there's some invisible relationship thing with major NPCs going on, too. Of course this being a certified eurojankTM game, you have to accept that it's not a looker, that combat is still very wonky, and the unusual unpolished aspects that come with it. But I'm really enjoying it so far, particularly as I've always liked PB's dual progression system with skill points and trainer perks. Makes the whole thing a bit more tangible as it bypasses the illogical construct of the classic RPG fundamentals. Not that this is an issue in other games, but it's a design idea I find very clever. Sidenote, this is also their first game that runs almost flawlessly on console. Performance mode on Series X only ever drops a few frames in very busy village settings, otherwise it's rock solid. Definitely not a game for everyone, but I think shiny and dwarf and some others might enjoy this. I'm not sure if I'd recommend playing both Elex games and I'm not far enough into this to say which one is better. So far this seems a bit more streamlined, but I've also read that the mid- to endgame is inferior to the original -- guess I'll see, but so far, so good.

Roller Drome seemed to get talked about a lot right before release, then no one mentioned it again. It's a CEL shaded roller skate arena game with similar muted colours to Sable. Presumably deliberately it reminds me of old 70s genre films. The concept is kind of Running Man, you enter arenas and have to shoot the house players. To reload you have to do tricks, this refills your ammo, killing enemies gets you health back,and there's a bunch of different enemy types. I wasn't feeling this originally, it just felt flat and boring, frustrating even. Movement can be a bit odd, you don't control your momentum, press forward to start then leave it, concentrate on steering, jumping and tricks. Get close enough and there's an auto aim to shots, with some of the weapons having slight tricks to them. There's a dodge, time this with the slow down time mechanic, usually used for aiming, and you get an extended period of slowed time. There's challenges to the levels, things like performing certain tricks, kill enemies with certain weapons, and I think it's this stuff that was annoying me. It's probably best to just beat a level then revisit it and try to get one or two challenges each time, that's not how I was approaching it. You need to beat a certain number of challenges to unlock the next set of levels, so I was trying to beat everything all at once, you just don't have that sort of control early on, or I didn't, I did much better when I came back after a break and went back to the earlier levels. I'm still not sure I see the really high scores for it, but when it does all click with you it is fun, really fun at points

I got this as a rental yesterday,took about 8 hours to update the damn thing. And there’s more updates on the way already. I’ve only played a couple of hours,so can’t really judge it yet. But the lack of NPCs really is an absolutely stupid decision. Elder Scrolls Online managed it fine,so I don’t get why they went that way with this. I only saw one actual player, who tried to kill me,but as I didn’t shoot back he couldn’t do F all. I was busy getting past the tutorial that I didn’t interact with him,so he got bored and left me to it. Oh,and Bethesda’s reaction to people pissed off about the poor quality bag in the Power Armour Edition is gobsmacking. “We made it out of cheap material,as we couldn’t afford what we advertised. Here,have 500 atoms. That gets you pretty much sod all”. They’re really trying to piss all their goodwill up the wall.

So, straight off the bat this game is weird... As in... It feels like I've been dumped in to the middle of a story and have no knowledge of what's gone (or going) on. It seems like it's a cross of every recent weird TV show or film from recent times, there's touches of Inception, Lost and God knows what else in here so far. Jesse (the main character) seems fine so far, she handles well enough... Shooting seems a little loose but I've turned off a couple of aim assists so that may explain that, I've only unlocked a couple of abilities (like launch) but that's opened up combat a little... I'm enjoying what I've played so far. Oddly, the game this most reminds me of somehow is a Dead Space game but I can't quite put my finger on why... I'm definitely interested to see where they take the story in this as so far it's weird as fuck and I have no idea where it's going.

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.

Booted this up for the first time today just for a look see... played for a couple of hours and completed four levels. For those not in the know it's a Steam punk (I guess) take on Westerns mixed with Vampires which I thought was going to be much more shooter orientated than it is... it's actually much closer to the newer God of War games than Gears of War, shit, you even open and smash chests the same way as Kratos does. So there's a definite leaning towards melee combat over ranged but there's Guns involved obviously being a Western. These work on a cool down rather than relying on ammo drops and are mainly used for hitting exposed weak points with the rifle or chip damage for the pistol then there's the sawn off which is great for obliterating shields... all standard stuff for anyone who's played a third person adventure game anytime recently. So far in terms of levels it feels very old school with very linear levels designed to funnel you from one encounter to the next. As for looks it's been a very mixed bag so far, actual game play looks ok, I'm not sure if it's a design choice or what but there's a really weird glow with everything... fire sources are ridiculously bright and this isn't even an hdr enabled game and then you have the cutscenes which everything just looks muddy and crushed to fuck... I'm not sure whats going on there. Funnily though the pictures I'll post look a damn sight better then they do on a tv.🤷‍♂️ So a bit of a mixed bag... plays fine, looks a little ropey.

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

This arrived early wooooo! Nice surprise because i thought zavvi would be slow at delivering, had to get up early and wait in for it at my parents, but it was totally worth it. Anyway yeah I'm really enjoying it so far, but even though I'm a fair few hours in I'm still doing tutorials, lots of story/setup, and some mini dungeon stuff, so early days still. There's been some funny stuff in there, mainly the responses you can pick, but not loads so far. The presentation/graphics/music is great as expected really. The guy in the velvet room sounds odd/different. Something this has from other SMT games that I'm not sure the persona ones I've played have properly had, which i always thought sounded cool, is talking to the bad guys. I like it. As expected it's pretty similar in gameplay and structure to persona 3 and 4, there's a map/school to run round talking to people and social links and stuff, and dungeon where bad guys are battled in turn based combat. So there you go. I'm sure some people will be picking this up so hope you guys enjoy it maybe i shouldn't have started this as I'll probably just skim read it till I've finished the game now, which will probably be a while.

So, this is basically rock band with features removed, no online play was the big one i'll miss. i think/hope they are adding stuff like that back in over time, as apparently there isn't going to be an RB5 for now at least and they're just going to add features to this one and sell dlc - not sure what features mind, and id guess if it and/or the dlc sells badly we won't see many new features. no keys - they won't be adding that back in. my wired guitar/drums won't work on xbox, but i had a guitar hero wireless guitar/drums so using those (not actually tried drums yet) with the adapter - would have liked a new guitar but the adapter pack was about £40 cheaper. the adapter seems to work well. ps4 version doesn't need an adapter if you had ps3 instruments. could download a lot of my existing dlc, ~270 songs - i was expecting it to be more limited selection at first but there's loads of stuff there - not everything though. and previous game exports aren't working at the moment. the positioning of the xbox notifications is ridiculous as it covers the bottom of the note highway, but not as bad on gameplay as it looks. i'd not heard of a lot of the on disk songs (not a problem with all the dlc anyway) but most of them (that i've played so far) seem good to average, a few crap ones, and some great songs like the elvis and cake ones. maybe a bit negative, but because it's rock band it's still awesome and i've been really enjoying it. i think coming back to the guitar has helped here - not played the guitar in this sort of game much in the recent versions, mainly played drums and keys. it's hard to recommend if you've got the old versions. anyone else bothering with this? or maybe getting guitar hero instead? (if i had to pick one i'd probably have gone for guitar hero)

I'd never heard of this before, but it looked awful so I downloaded it for a laugh. Honestly, I haven't even gotten into the gameplay yet, but it's the most PS2-ass game I've ever seen in my life. It has boob jiggle, a la Dead or Alive (also apparently from some of that series' devs), and this is introduced in the first cutscene. The animation, even in the cinematics is janky, stunted, and exactly like you'd expect from an early 2000s title. If you'd told me this is a Remake or remaster from that gen, I wouldn't have been surprised. I hope this creeps into so bad its good territory.

Been hammering this pretty hard since I got my PS5, haven’t actually played anything else yet ? about 13 hours in. Going in I was pretty confident I was gonna like it but a little bit cautious due to my time with the previous game. I ended up loving it a lot in the end but had a lot of issues with the side activities which felt like they were stuck in the PS2 era, which brought the game down from the highs of the phenomenal story. So with that in mind, this has far exceeded every expectation I ever had for it already. It’s safe to say it plays very similarly to the previous game, the mechanics, the combat, the stealth sections, the Arkham-style Predator sections and - unfortunately - some of the side activities are all very familiar if you’ve played SM 2018. So in lots of ways it doesn’t really innovate, it merely tweaks the formula from the previous game adding in new powers for Miles like the ‘Venom’ Power stuff, but when the core is as strong as it is there was no point starting from scratch. Everything works, and it works really well, the combat is still fun, the swinging is still addictive as fuck and the side activities are still a little PS2-esque but trimmed down a bit from the previous game. It feels a bit like being reacquainted with an old friend really. Whilst that core from the previous game is very much in tact the game still manages to have a very different feel to it thanks to Miles. Miles is just a very different character and a very different Spider-Man than Peter Parker and his identity and charisma is running through pretty much every facet of the game. Whilst the previous game had you taking charge of a confident, assured Peter Parker that had honed his craft over a number of years, Miles is still a teenager who has a lot to learn in general. He is becoming a man, has just become ‘the other’ Spider-Man and has to deal with a lot of strong emotions from the events of SM 2018 coupled with moving to a new neighbourhood and his Mother running for a local Council position. Miles just makes the game so much more refreshing. We’ve seen and played as Peter Parker’s Spidey in so many games and films over the years that getting to pilot Miles in this and see New York from a totally different perspective just feels fresh and unique. The best way I can describe it is akin to ‘The Lost and Damned’ DLC from GTA IV, you’re playing a new character that starts off in a totally different district that it makes the game and the environment itself feel totally fresh and new because you’re coming at it from such a different angle. I think the Christmas setting this time around lends the city a totally different feel to the Summery New York of SM 2018 as well. This being a PS5 launch title I have to mention the graphics. They are extraordinary. Not just the big things you notice like the Ray Traced reflections on every surface (playing in fidelity mode) but the little things like the squirrels that now roam about and run up trees or the little ornate gardens outside some of the opulent buildings that are scattered across Manhattan. Every single building you come across seems to have so much more detail to it than in the previous game, Manhattan in that game often came across as a little bland for me in some of the outer districts but in this every single one has its own identity. There was one section quite near the beginning of the story where you’re walking through a Harlem street market with Miles and his friend and it just blew me away, getting this level of graphical quality this early in the generation is just insane to me. My only real criticism of it would be the side activities again. Don’t get me wrong, they are far less of an issue here and I’ve enjoyed them for the most part but every now and again they’ll get on my tits a bit, nothing to the level of SM 2018, but yeah there still is some room for improvement there in my view. The story moves at a quicker pace this time around. It did take the previous game a while to get going but here it seems to throw you into the deep end a bit sooner with some twists coming relatively early that I never saw coming. I just love hanging out with Miles and his friends really, some of my favourite moments are just walking around his Mums apartment studying various bits and pieces in there and listening to all the banter in Spanish (and English) between them. I will say as well, to anyone that was worried about this being a short jaunt back into Spidey’s Manhattan, don’t be. It has taken me 13 hours so far and I’m only about 50% through, considering the previous game took me 34 hours to Platinum, this will likely end up taking me 25 or so. I’ve just loved being back in this Marvel version of New York again and piloting Miles, he really is a breath of fresh air. I really cannot recommend this enough, this is one of the best ever PS launch titles already in my view, definitely shits all over the PS4 and PS3 offerings that’s for sure. What a start to the next generation! Pics:

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.

Bit of a weird pace to Yakuza 6. There's a lot of story up front, a lot of back story and video to get you up to speed, but once the game starts it's a very small story. For hours and hours the politics of the yakuza and the criminal underworld take a back seat, there's a few threads introduced, but it's almost all about Kiryu and Haruka. even the daftness of past Yakuza games is kept to a minimum. There's not a ton of side quests to start with, and what there is isn't the sort of memorable stuff you got in Yakuza 0. But then it starts to creep in. I've done a few missions as a mascot, I've fought some ghosts, I've punched a shark in the face, it's started to feel more like a Yakuza game. Once it starts it just steamrolls, you hints of a tangled political plot are now fully realised and I'm seeing multiple groups, multiple betrayals, Kauzuma somehow being key to it all. The new engine has meant the combat is a bit more free flowing, that's a bit of a mixed blessing as I liked the structured move set more, but at least it feels fresher. Levelling up has changed again, this is fine except for when you're short of one of the 5 different types of points and can't level certain stats up. The experience is also used for the gangs mini game, although it's not as expensive, but while there's lots of ways to get xp, certain types are less common. Money is also initially more scarce. Enemies don't drop it the way they did in 0, nor Kiwami, and there's no job as such. I'd recommend the perk that increases what you get from fights as an early purchase, but even then it's still very sporadic. There's also a gym that's an easy source of xp, and only costs you a meal. I'd mainly recommend it for the results page. Same with the fishing mini game, it's the closest thing you get to a job that I've seen, but it's funny and it's a decent game

Yakuza is undoubtedly one of my favourite gaming franchises. It’s been consistently excellent for many years now. Yakuza Zero is one of my favourite games of all time. So,I’m always up for more. This entry has shifted from the usual over the top action, to an RPG style. Quite the difference. The reviews have said that it’s paid off, for the most part. Though there are some massive difficulty spikes near the end, that require some hefty grinding. Anyway, I’m a couple of hours in. There hasn’t been much gameplay yet, it’s almost entirely cutscenes thus far. Yakuza games always start slowly, this entry apparently takes about 10 hours to get properly started. Another new addition is a brand new character, Ichiban. He seems decent enough, though it’s too early to say how he compares to Kiryu. We will see how it plays out.

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, this is out in the wild now, played the opening 2 hours or so earlier and, unfortunately, I've got kind of mixed feelings about it. The first 15-20 minutes or so is an incredible introduction to the game, incredibly cinematic, production values through the roof and sets up the start of the game perfectly, but after that everything kind of went down hill a bit for me really... I can't really put my finger on why, really, just not a lot excited me in that opening 2 hours that I played, I was actually pleased when my session on the game came to an end, which very rarely happens to me with games nowadays, it could just be open-world bewilderment to be fair. Quite a lot of open-world games I play, I find them quite hard to get into in the opening hour or two because you're bombarded with information about all sorts of systems in the game, bombarded with side-quests, tutorials etc. and I get a little bewildered by processing all this info and it just takes me a while to get my head around things before I get to grips with the gameplay systems and hopping around the world, so it could just be this to be fair. The biggest addition to the game is obviously the Batmobile, it's cool, and the interactions you can have jumping in and out of it, ejecting into a glide from it etc. are incredible, but the 'Battle mode' or whatever they call it is incredibly dull, I've only used it a few times, but so far I just took down a number of identikit mini-drone tank things in it, and it just felt like a chore already, the handling of the Batmobile is quite loose as well, but it's nice enough to handle, I never know now whether to use the Batmobile to get to my next objective or to glide there I really like that a lot of the gadgets that were unlocked through the story and that you had to upgrade in the previous games are now unlocked from the start, the gel, rope launcher and other bits and pieces are really cool, but the star for me is the upgraded grapnel being included from the start, it annoyed me so much in the previous games when you had to upgrade the grapnel so you can press A twice continue your glide over wherever you've grappeled to, annoyed me intensely, Rocksteady have definitely kitted you out with a lot of the stuff you'd only find half-way or three-quarters of the way through in previous games, it does give you the feeling that you're Batman at his prime. Did a few side-missions too, 1 Riddler race, probably my favourite that I've done so far, really cool, bit of challenge to it and some cool mechanics Rocksteady have put in there, there's a Murder mystery type set of side-missions which were in previous games that are interesting but more of the same really and ones where you have to rescue/find some Firefighters for reasons I'm not sure of. What annoyed me slightly, was that in the Riddler missions, I was under the impression that they'd completely taken away the annoying Riddler trophies of previous games, and replaced them with these races, but no, it seems you still have to collect Riddler trophies, this time to unlock more races, seriously cannot be fucked doing that. The graphics haven't really impressed me as much as I thought they would either, I mean, don't get me wrong they look good but I expected them to be jaw-dropping from what I've seen of the game thus far, and it just wasn't really, there's a moment where you look out on Gotham from a tower right near the very start of the game, and the vista and draw distance is incredible but the textures just aren't quite up the level I thought they'd be, the rain effects and particle effects are cool but the rest is just a really shiny Arkham City, some of the small bugs that affected those games like Texture pop-in also make an awful reappearance in Arkham Knight, I was literally standing on a roof top about 100m away and the big building across from me had awful muddy textures right up until I glided really near it, that's unfortunately the pitfalls of still using the Unreal 3 engine, Rocksteady. Very early days into the main-story, but it just isn't gripping me at all at the moment, being forced to do a load of challenge-tutorials half-way through a main-story mission is no fun either and completely took me out of the zone, I guess Rocksteady thought I need to learn all this shit for the mission ahead but it just felt a bit haphazard to me. These are very early impressions though, I've played every game in the Batman:Arkham series and have a somewhat mixed history with them, loved AA, thought AC was incredibly overrated and preferred AO myself, will give this a fair crack of the whip, but so far, it's more AC than AA which is what I feared, will put some more time into this later today.

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?

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.

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

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

Played the demo of this on Friday and thought I’d give my thoughts on it. Played around 40 minutes to an hour and I definitely would’ve liked longer with it which is a good sign. Graphically it’s very colourful, it reminded me quite a bit of the game Rime mixed with a more cartoony AC Odyssey with a sprinkling of Zelda. To play it’s immediately reminiscent of AC Odyssey. The way the combat system works with all the special abilities is very familiar, but it is definitely more flamboyant and less grounded, it feels like the system has been jazzed up and some of the moves you can pull off are a little closer to DMC than the weight of AC:OD. The way all the landmarks and points of interest are pinned to the top is very similar to AC:OD as well but then a lot of games use that system nowadays. The most interesting aspect to me was the puzzle aspect. I only came across one in my short time with the game but it was a nice surprise, reminded me a bit of some of the puzzles you’d come across in BOTW and was satisfying to complete. The way Fenyx moves is very familiar to BOTW too, there’s a stamina bar that depletes as you run and climb. She sprouts wings when you Glide which looks and feels very similar to Link’s glider in BOTW. It has a playful sense of humour to it as well. The way the demo plays out is that Zeus and Prometheus are narrating a story but keep getting it wrong, so things change on the fly for Fenyx as they adapt their stories in an attempt to get things right. The two have a lot of character and are nowhere near as stoic or uptight as some of their other interpretations in games over the years. Overall I was impressed with it but needed more time real to nail down a recommendation. It’s a lot of fun though and I think it will be a great world to get lost in but I can’t shake the feeling that it might be a little bit unoriginal and not doing a lot of new things per se. Saying that, I’ll definitely keep my pre-order after playing the demo, I love new IP and want to play some more after this brief taste.

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.

this is so far pretty much what i expected, i don't like open world and this sort of game structure usually, but gravity rush and sunset overdrive i really like due to the fun traversal and i think/hope this will be the same. the city is amazing, been having fun swinging about collecting stuff. it can be easy to die, even on easy, guess it'll get easier as i power up.

Wow, no thread for this? I'm surprised. Been dipping and diving into lots of different PC games and struggling to find something that really grabs me. This is it, I think. I'm only about 90 minutes in, so far it's an adventure set in a dilapidated world that feels marked by communism, or on the verge of some sort of ugly class upheaval. You're a very hungover detective who doesn't really know what's happening but there's a case you got to investigate. But maybe the real thing you got to investigate is who you are and what has happened to you. Sound familiar? I really like it so far. It's basically just a game about reading lots of text so far and passing/failing speech checks. I don't really get all the systems yet, but it's like PS:T through the lens of Jack Kerouac or William S Burroughs. Absolutely fucked up and manky but very beautifully written heaps of text everywhere. The screen where they show you all your perks/specialities is so aggressively wordy. I don't know if there is actually any combat in the game because every perk seems to be based around some personality trait

Finally getting round to playing this. Far as I’m concerned, Ryu ga Gotoku can do no wrong. From the outstanding Yakuza series, to the insane but glorious Fist Of The North Star. So I had high hopes for this. Reached Chapter 2, and I’m really enjoying it. Kamurocho is as familiar as ever, and looks just as amazing as it did in Yakuza 6. They’ve added some new mini games, though to be honest they’re pretty weak. Following people in forced stealth trailing missions is never my idea of fun. Here, you can quite often have several one after the other. Which is a ball-ache. They’ve ditched Kareoke, which is a real shame. As blasting out “BREAKING THE WORLD” was always fun. The English dub is actually really well done, they’ve clearly put effort into it. I usually prefer the original Japanese audio, but they’ve done a decent job with the dub. The combat doesn’t feel quite as satisfying as Zero’s, a lot of moves are locked in the skill tree. Still, it’s off to a good start.