PWB September Everything's back to normlol

Play
Quake - Lots of fun still. Not much variety in the core episodes but still, good fun.

Metroid Fuzion - I remembered I was going to play this after Castlevania. So far I prefer Castlevania.

RPGs - Running three games a week which require prep is too much. I need to swap one of them out for something more easy going. Hopefully I can do that when we finish Cthulhu and I start up a new group with some shorter games.

Want
2nd independence referendum please.

Someone else to do all the housework I'm avoiding

Play

Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. Something very weird has happened - I'm really enjoying this. It's mostly thanks to the Wrath of the Druids expansion, which mixes things up just enough. Ireland is a small, self-contained area so you actually get to know it a bit, "Royal Requests" drop little side-quests all over your map, there's an enjoyable trading side-activity you can do in the background as you play, and there aren't any stupid little comedy sketches as world events (although the "build a pile of rocks" challenges are everywhere, sadly). In short, it feels a bit more like the older games in the series, and shows that Valhalla, despite its very rough edges, is a reasonable Ass Creed game at heart. The real test will be when I go back to the main game, I'll either have adjusted to its rhythm and end up enjoying it more, or I'll hate it without all the Ireland improvements and ditch it for good.

Monster Train. Been completely hooked on this for a while now, up to Covenant 24 out of 25 so nearly beaten the game's main challenge. Sacrilege maybe but I now think this is better than Slay the Spire. It's certainly massively more varied.

Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. First case of the second game is already an improvement.

Want

Nothing much on the horizon for the foreseeable so I'm catching up with backlog/Game Pass for the time being, and of course playing Hitman 3. I'll probably start Yakuza 6 soon.

I'm intrigued to see what the HDR fix for Elder Scrolls Online looks like, though. Next week I think.

Bin

Schools go back this week so we're due another Covid shitshow any… time… now.

Bin

Schools go back this week so we're due another Covid shitshow any… time… now.

Already underway in Scotland.

PLAY
Ori and the Blind Forest on Switch, which I picked up in a previous sale. I find the jumping feels a little floaty sometimes, which has resulted in many deaths of the OHNONOTTHATWAYPANICARGGH variety. I seem to be getting better at it in general though so maybe it's just different rather than worse. It's lovely to look at/listen to and I can generally make progress in the odd half an hour I get for gaming at the moment, so ticks all my requirements very nicely.

WANT
Dragon Quest XI, where I've finished the very generous demo and am waiting for the full game to go on sale again. Very much enjoyed it up to this point.
Another holiday to recover from the one we just had. The kids LOVED going to the beach for the very first time, plus we had unexpectedly nice weather given we were in Scotland (lolz), but holidays with small children are exhausting. I feel like I’ve been away from work, which is great, but I don’t feel at all rested…

BIN
Job applications. Egad I hate talking about myself in this kind of way. I guess I’m just terribly British when it comes to self-promotion. If I'd been brought up in the US I'm sure I'd be much better at this stuff. And I'd have better teeth.
A complete lack of grown up, sensible, coherent leadership in the world at all, anywhere for obvious reasons

Play

Psychonauts 2 is beautiful, inventive, hilarious, and everything else you want a sequel to Psychonauts to be. It's missing that final bit of triple-A sheen (floaty platforming, sound design that feels slightly disconnected from everything else), but it's entirely forgivable in the face of such bewildering invention and imagination. Hopefully it does well enough to warrant a third.

Bin

Skyward Sword is done and dusted, and I've never seen a more beautifully polished turd. Who knew there was a good game under all that painful hand-holding? Not a great game, and certainly one of the weaker Zeldas, but I didn't once get bored during its 30-hour run-time.

Having said that, if I never see that giant black frog demon that walks slowly uphill ever again, I'll be a happy man. Worst boss fight in anything, ever, I'd say.

The thing with the toenails? Yes, that's an absolutely appalling boss. It's even shit in Hyrule Warriors, which is some achievement given how awesome everything else in that game is.

At least you get to fight it 5 times.

Psychonauts 2 is beautiful, inventive, hilarious, and everything else you want a sequel to Psychonauts to be. It's missing that final bit of triple-A sheen (floaty platforming, sound design that feels slightly disconnected from everything else), but it's entirely forgivable in the face of such bewildering invention and imagination. Hopefully it does well enough to warrant a third.

Ah yes, knew there was another WANT - definitely want to play this at some point, loved the first one.

Play

In an effort to redress my atrophied assassination skills, I've been hopping back to the opening levels in Hitman 3 to pick up the challenges and mission stories that I never bothered to get on Series X. I'm still on Paris, albeit with a slight detour to Marrakesh for the Elusive the other week, and I'm a little surprised at just how familiar I still am with it (even if the basement does still get me turned around quite a bit).

I've been drafted in from time to time in the kid's messing about in Mario Odyssey to tackle challenges that are beyond him, and as a result have finally managed to beat the Darkest Side. If I never have to do any of that precision platforming shit again, it'll be too soon. It's not helped by the increasingly aggressive drift on the left joycon, though thankfully we have a Pro Controller.

Okami is still not done on Switch; I've gotten further than I managed on most previous replay attempts, but it can be slow going with a five-year-old demanding that I read out all the many, many, many subtitles (and then making me recap twice it because he wasn't listening).

My tabletop games – Monster of the Week and an Avatar Legends intro – are still in their very early stages, with a couple of sessions being called off due to player commitments. I'm definitely not being aggressive enough in Monster of the Week, with one player character in particular being a frustrating homebody that I'm worried I'll have to drag into the plot kicking and screaming. Avatar, with only two players, is easier to push forward.

Want

I was looking at my Switch wishlist the other day, and spotted the Advance Wars remake, so that's shot back to the front of my brain.

Bin

I've been feeling very, very tired lately and would very much like that to go away.

Play
I've always half enjoyed Forza games, but never more than a collact-a-thon set in a vaguely pleasant world that's nice to tootle around. Well, I have been absolutely blown away by Horizon 4 and Forza 7 using a G290 wheel with a shifter and pedals. To say it's transformative is an understatement. It's made these games' handling models make sense. The racing is fucking amazing. While the wheel feel isn't really much like a real car, after a while your brain adapts there is a thrill almost like VR in terms of the connection between the screen and your actions. I've also been enjoying Dirt 5 and Wreckfest but it's Forza that feels the best. And knowing Edinburgh quite well finally getting to drive like a total dickhead down Princes Street has been a treat.

Cyberpunk. About 40 hours in and absolutely loving it. Just unlocked the Mantis blades and double jumping legs and my already psychotic run where I just kill people for even looking at me funny has transformed into me being a cross between The Shrike and The Four Horsemen. I have a pistol which could one shot Jesus and a sniper rifle that could headshot a tardigrade. Yes, it's still buggy, yes it's still questionable in bits, yes the plot is a bit bobbins, but I don't (apart from perhaps GTA5) there's been as good a representation of a city and all its moving parts in a game. Can look glorious at times too.

Minecraft - I don't like it, but I appear to be funding a server for half of the teenage population of France. I did experiment with Optifine and shaders though and holy fuck can you make it look nice these days.

Apex - mainly Arenas now as there I have a KD of about 1.6. Battle Royale is dead to me (KD 0.4). I can't seem to get a kill any more. Either people have got vastly better or I've got vastly too old (which doesn't make sense as I will fuck you up in Arenas). Tap strafing being removed is a bit of a bruh moment though.

Want
Nothing springs to mind. Halo Infinite?

Bin
Left 4 Dead 2 - we fired it up for a laugh. It has not aged well :(

Destiny 2 - sadly Luscan it burned bright, but everyone ended up hating it :D

Control - tried it. Why is everything grey and like a game from 2003.

My partner is finally (after 7 years) moving to live (from 30 miles away) to be in the same town as me (not the same house, let's not go crazy here). Moving house is such a fucking chore. The amount of shit you accrue after 40+ years on the planet living in rural Wales would make Marie Kondo faint. Bored of moving boxes now.

As of today I am the CEO of a company. I hate it already. I have enough money to last about 2 years from investors, then I'm retiring and driving round Europe in a camper van.

Kent - not just generally, but the prices of fucking garages. I went to get a 4 year old Kia estate car serviced and only just got out of there with both kidneys from a garage in Ashford. My local mechanic here can do the work for literally half the price. Fucking Kent man.

Please please tell me that your local mechanic is called Bowser Foxtrot.

There's a whole sitcom here about a jaded 40-something where the tedium of life in rural Wales has resulted in his imagination populating the entire place with Nintendo characters.

Screw the sitcom that's a Psychonauts 2 DLC.

My local mechanic is called Giles and, ironically, comes from Kent and likes horse riding (he also owns a stables).

We both have houses in Kent too. Which neither of us live in for long periods through choice.

Both of us get through the tedium of life outside South East England by spending 30 minutes each day remembering why we don't while breathing air that doesn't smell like Satan's anus.

Play: Lovely Islanders: Console Edition. It's a bit slight but for £3.99 there's not much to complain about. It's a light strategy game where you build up the infrastructure of a procedurally generated island terrain. There's not much beyond choosing placement of buildings/fields etc. – it's not Cities: Skylines – to score maximum points but, for what it is, it's really engaging.

The console short comings are mainly around camera/movement and there were a couple of annoying bugs early on. It has a real board game feel to me that would lend itself to some multiplayer mode but, again, it was £3.99. Reminds me of From Dust if that's any further endorsement.

Had a go of Letters from Whitechapel with real friends around a real table last week. It was pretty good.

Want: Probably want a Switch for this Advance Wars remaster.

Want: Probably want a Switch for this Advance Wars remaster.

Staff shop opened again recently. Cough.

Can you get reasonably priced Joycons? My kids have nicked my latest set as they run through about 8 sets a year.

You know Nintendo repair the sticks for free right?

A free stick repair would be like putting a splint on the leg of a man who'd just swallowed a high explosive.

What do they do with them? I have images of them being used as spare ammo in games of Crossbows & Catapults.

Can you get reasonably priced Joycons? My kids have nicked my latest set as they run through about 8 sets a year.

At the moment, I don't think so - they're only offering a very small range of physical items due to the fact that requires the shop to be open for collection. Digital codes are now handled through the website, so they don't have to worry about restrictions to sell those.

I'll check, keep an eye on it and let you know. But the discount on hardware is significantly less than the one on software (10% vs 33%) so after postage, it might not be worth it anyway.

Play
I have barely played any games the last 2 weeks except for Disney Infinity still and I can't see that going away, but the main update is the little one will play it by herself in little bits as long as you set the world up, and I have moved her onto trying one of the Star Wars playsets, which she loves as there is a lot going on and she is very amused by throwing things into the Saarlac.

What's also good is she now understands that characters with a thing above their head want to talk and she will press on them and then ask me to read out what they are saying and then begin to talk about the words and ask questions, so that at least allows me to pretend I am parenting.

Want
Not released for months but I did pre order the Amiga mini.

Wanted
I also finally found the copies of GamesTM I never had on ebay (all in the 1-10 range) and so I now finally have a full set of that. Was a huge fan of that mag right to the end and is the reason I ended up here. Whilst I still get Retro Gamer that's more because I have always had or read physical mags and don't want to transition to not doing so.

Bin

My current games room. It's just so frigging small and cramped, we never use the living room it feels like so tempted to try and put it to the missus maybe she should take the office for her painting and that we should just move more the gaming gear into there.

Have you tried Wireframe magazine bigmeanbunny? He doesn't hang around with us any more but Ianos is involved with it, I stopped subbing but occassionally remember to download their free pdf version (the paper version was £6 a month last time I bought one)

Against my better judgement I started Xenosaga today and it is much more fun than I expected but so far I've probably done more watching than playing….KOS-MOS, the blue haired android you've probably seen everywhere is a complete fucking badass who does kung fu, dual wields miniguns and almost punches through spaceship windows from the outside. If you've played Xenoblade Chronicles 2, she's like Mythra and Pyra with less fucking around and more finding out.

So far I will say I am surprised how much I'm enjoying the battle system, I know Xenosaga 2's combat is supposed to suck ass but if I'm being honest so far this has a way better combat system than Xenogears.(there it is, all 3 in one post)

I also finally found the copies of GamesTM I never had on ebay (all in the 1-10 range) and so I now finally have a full set of that.

Oh wow. Dedication.

Was a huge fan of that mag right to the end

/blushes

Games TM was the last mag I stopped buying.

Oh no, who put 50p in the ego

Ha, sorry. I had tried Wireframe yes, I remember liking it but only got a couple of issues. I didn't get the first but I have just backed a Games Journal thing on Kick Starter called "Lock On".

Most (subs pls check) of the GamesTM letters page was written by me, Brian, feltmonkey and a few other guys from here. I can't remember which issue it is, but I think I had two letters and a sidebar in one issue alone (using fake names).

I wonder what percentage of hobby magazines is written by fans who then go on to buy the magazine.

I used to hate putting letters pages together (for all the mags I worked on, not just gamesTM). 90% of what we received was just bullshit.

I used to hate putting letters pages together (for all the mags I worked on, not just gamesTM). 90% of what we received was just bullshit.

Brian couldn't help it.

I used to hate putting letters pages together (for all the mags I worked on, not just gamesTM). 90% of what we received was just bullshit.

Are you surprised if cav has two letters and a sidebar!? And you gave Argh! a column

Graeme's columns always made me laugh. I loved being able to have him write for us long after I lost the chance to work alongside him. Lovely man.

Where is he now?

I still see him online, but won't this week because I'm unavoidably detained on holiday. I can pass on everyone's regards if you like?

I mean, that's like me saying Brian Cox is my mate because I follow him on Twitter.

I think Prole and A!Z! are still playing regular Rainbow 6 Vegas terrorist hunts.

R6 Vegas… Those were the days. (Black Arrow too)

Where is he now?

I mean, I dunno if he moved? He was on the east coast within reach of New York last time I spoke to him many years ago.

I used to hate putting letters pages together (for all the mags I worked on, not just gamesTM). 90% of what we received was just bullshit.

Ha! I had some letters in there occasionally, the bulk of my stack is stored away for the time being but I remember one specific later was bemoaning the poor review of the ShadowRun FPS, which was ahead of it's time as a class-based shooter. Loved that game.

I've been listening to the Back Page Pod lately and they seem to echo what you say on letters pages, one of them is also ex GamesTM but I am forever forgetting their names.

I've been listening to the Back Page Pod lately and they seem to echo what you say on letters pages, one of them is also ex GamesTM but I am forever forgetting their names.

Sam Roberts. After my time, I don't think I ever worked with him (certainly not on gTM). He might have been in the other wing of Imagine with the PC mags when I was still there…

I mean, that's like me saying Brian Cox is my mate because I follow him on Twitter.

So… do you want me to say hi for you or not?

From me, yes please!

So… do you want me to say hi for you or not?

Absolutely! Ignore cav.

Off the back of this I have subscribed to Wireframe as doing a 3 issues for 5quid. Grabbed a few of the pdfs too.

I passed on the greetings / nice comments. Got this back:

Thinking lately about Eagleman's version of the Three Deaths; the third is when our name is spoken for the last time. To be mentioned warmly feels like an early booster shot against this demise. Thank them. Say hey back.

So there you go. You're helping to ward against existential angst, it seems. Which is nice.

I had to look up Eagleman. Not what I expected.

Play - still deep in MH Stories 2, and realised why I liked it so much, reminds me of Ni No Kuni, which then reminded me I haven’t played NNK2. So that’s now on my want list.

Thanks Prole!

No worries.

In other news: I've a word with Prof. Cox and a signed photo (with kisses!) is on its way to cav.

Wow, things can indeed only get better.