PWB September 2022

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Tinykin - part Pikmin, part Chibi-Robo, part Banjo-Tooie, this is a nice if largely challenge-free little platformer that looks and feels like a lost GameCube game. It uses a striking hybrid of 2D characters and 3D backgrounds, and while the characters and storyline are nothing special, exploring the environments and collecting all the collectible things is as fun as it always is in this type of game. Another little gem from Game Pass.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes - there are many ways of onboarding players to the very complicated game they've just bought, and the absolute worst way - beloved of Japanese developers and used in this, the original Three Houses and Monster Hunter Rise - is to constantly interrupt the player with text boxes explaining stuff at length without letting them play around and work anything out for themselves. It's infuriating and - combined with the very long cut-scenes - makes for a challenging start. Now Three Houses was exactly the same and I ended up loving that, so I'm sure I'll like this, but I also don't think I'm really in the mood for this at the moment. May end up coming back to it later.

Want

Splatoon 3 this week, not really for me at all but the boy is very much looking forward to it.

The new Monkey Island game is in a couple of weeks - which has very much snuck up on me - and I think Slime Rancher 2 not long after that. Can't think of much else right now.

Bin

Merry Trussmas everybody. If we make it to the end of the year without freezing, starving or getting ourselves nuked I will take that as a win.

Additional play

Multiversus

Been playing the latest character Morty for a while. Really fun, but hard to use. Some cool looking combos at low percents, satisfying cheap kills with up special and decent keep away game with his projectiles. He's a good character but compared to most of the cast struggles to keep up for me. Feel like I have to work twice as hard to win especially in singles. The biggest buff I hope to see is more options to kill. You can get someone to high percent but just can't finish them off. I actually had my first time out against another Morty which was pretty funny. Both of us was around 200 health and still couldn't kill each other. You pretty much have to fish for his up air or down air and both aren't anything special to be honest. If anyone was thinking of spending 3,000 gold on him. I'll say make sure to try him out in the lab first as he's not the easiest character to use. Still a lot of fun. I'm kinda shocked by the amount of content coming in season 1 alone though. So far the characters announced are Gizmo, Stripe, Black Adam and Rick. That's 5 characters if you include Morty for a 3 month season. That pretty amazing really. I thought we'll get around 6 characters per year so I'm happy with the road map for sure. Gizmo is out Thursday and I'll be disappointed if his side special wasn't a bow with the Rambo bandana. Man, really in the mood to watch them movies again.

Tinykin

Really enjoying this. Kinda plays out like Pikmin with the art style of Paper Mario. Nice to see a new 3D platformer with lot of collectables to keep you busy too.

Edit: Gar explained it way better than me, but yeah I have to agree. Great little gem for game pass.

Play
Archvale - It's Zelda if Zelda was a twin-stick shooter. I'm enjoying it although I'm only an hour or two in. I'm looking forward to seeing how I can develop my various weapons.

Want
Tinykin sounds good. I'll go download it before I forget what it's called. I seem to be unable to remember the name of anything I play on gamepass.

Bin
To truly share with you all the things which need binned, I think we would need to be able to upload direct to your brain like Neo learning Kung Fu.

Tinykin is 100% a Brian game.

Play

Elden Ring Bought this on a whim after postings in the thread on here a couple of weeks ago. It's a bit bloody good - the increases in heart rate I get while facing bosses in From's games are probably not healthy, but the thrill is like nothing else out there. I'm playing as a caster, which means I can keep my distance from the scary monsters for the most part, but already want to do a second run with a bloody big sword too. I don't get long gaming sessions anymore so I'm kind of following a walkthrough to help me find my way around - the world is brilliantly well put together, with secrets and hidden stuff all over. I'd have had an absolute ball exploring this solo when I was a younger man and had the time, but even with a guide it's still an astounding piece of work.

Immortality I've got this downloaded and ready on the HDD, the latest interactive video whatever from Sam Barlow, who did Telling Lies and Her Story. Meant to be more Lynchian than his previous games, plus genuinely scary in places. Very much looking forward to trying it out.

Life is Strange - True Colours Still making our way through this - it's very pleasant and I enjoy it when I play it, but doesn't quite have the narrative drive to really propel me through it. The setting is beautiful though, makes me want to live near mountains and lakes and be friends with people in beanie hats.

Want

Zelda BOTW2 specifically, which I got reminded about the other day and am now low-key hyped for again. Would take Switch versions of Wii U remasters as stopgap. Don't suppose anyone who works for the Big N will log onto this site and indicate whether such a thing might actually be incoming… cough

Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened remake, which (Ukrainian dev) Frogwares have just massively over-funded through Kickstarter. Hope they stay safe and get to launch it in Feb as planned, it'd be quite some achievement from a literal warzone. Their games are often shonky as hell, but tickle the sleuthing itch like nothing else out there (on console).

Bin
I don't really know where to start. Or finish.

Immortality I've got this downloaded and ready on the HDD, the latest interactive video whatever from Sam Barlow, who did Telling Lies and Her Story. Meant to be more Lynchian than his previous games, plus genuinely scary in places. Very much looking forward to trying it.

I didn't know about the other games. Definitely on my list to complete now. I posted about this in the Completed thread. I don't normally like these types of games, but I still can't stop thinking it. Really, really well done with some unforgettable scary moments.

I'm glad folks have said this is scary, I'd have played it without knowing otherwise and hated it utterly.

Play :

Animal Crossing - We are back on this in a big way, now find myself plotting a massive farm build to try and make it easier for the little one to get the houses upgrades by churning out produce.

Old PlayStation wrestling and football games - Now I have my cellar set up as a games room/office staff I visited the games store on Leigh Market whilst at my pending father in laws, and grabbed a stack of different low cost titles.

Kotor - Back on this again as my limited run copy arrived.

Want -

The cellar to not flood

Bin -

Yeah everything. Knew as soon as we bought a house the world would implode financially.

Merry Trussmas everybody. If we make it to the end of the year without freezing, starving or getting ourselves nuked I will take that as a win.

But think of the pork markets!

Play
Mass Effect 3 Legendary Edition - technically shonky but it really holds up in the storytelling stakes. The shonkiness isn't anything to do with the graphics, which look good in the LE, but the technical limitations on things like interactions between physical objects and characters. So Shepard might find an item that an NPC needs, so you go to hand it over. The two charcters do an animation as if handing something from one to the other, but there's nothing there. It's okay though - you can sort of mentally fill in the blanks. The story moments are wonderful though. I'm at a section where Shepard is having a series of meaningful moments with some of the characters that have been with her through the games, and they're lovely. There are still times where you innocently pick an option from the dialogue tree and what Shepard says is unexpectedly flirty. This is awkward when she's flirting with that meathead character who I hate. It's not quite as bad as in Dragon Age 2 when I tried to support a friend going through a hard time and ended up accidentally propositioning a wizard.

Spoiler - click to show I chose Ashley to die in this run-through, so I've got the return of bitter Mikel Arteta lookalike Kayden. There's supposed to be a long, complicated history between the two charcters, but I always saw him as one of a long line of Carth substitutes so he always comes across a bit stupid to me when he's pouring his heart out. I think this says something about the human condition, but I'll be buggered if I know what.

Want
To be able to afford to both heat the house and eat this winter, like many people. People will die because of this situation, and the Tories have chosen someone who seems borderline insane to guide us through it. Johnson didn't care, but Truss doesn't seem to know where she is half the time. I expect they're lining up Nadine Dorries next.

Bin
The way things are at the moment it would be far quicker to list the things not to bin.

I would recommend not binning food, since the Telegraph seems convinced eating mouldy food is fine. It's fine! Shut up and eat your mold.

I would recommend not binning food, since the Telegraph seems convinced eating mouldy food is fine. It's fine! Shut up and eat your mold.

That's been one of the most horrifying things about this, hasn't it? You've got the Tory papers telling us stuff like that, Edwina Curry giving us contemptful, patronising tips about putting tin foil behind the radiators, and Johnson telling us that if we spend £20 on a kettle (I used to work in a home appliance department - you need to spend at least £50+ to get an energy efficient kettle) we can save £10 a year on our bills. The narrative is that the struggles of the poor are their (our, frankly) own fault for being feckless. The rich patronising the poor for suffering, while refusing to countenance the possibility of themselves shouldering any financial burden, no matter how small, to help their fellow human beings through an impossible, dangerous situation - it's sickening.

The Telegraph, like all print media and most digital media, is owned by billionaires, in this case the Barclay family. Fucking billionaires setting the definition of truth. There is no moral justification for the existence of billionaires. It is impossible for them to spend the money they have, and more pertinantly is is completely impossible for them to deserve it. Nobody can work that much harder than the average person, nobody can have ideas that are that much more important than the average person. We fail to understand what a billion even is. We sort of think of it as one notch up from a million, but it isn't. Tom Scott did a video where he tried to illustrate how much a billion is. He took the length of a single dollar bill and said, "this is how long a million dollars is if you laid them out end to end." He walked up and down through a car park. Then he said, "and this is how long a billion dollars is." and got in a car and drove, down a motorway, for over an hour. It's a stunning, eye-opening, and deeply upsetting video.

Tinykin is 100% a Brian game.

This is accurate.

Tom Scott did a video where he tried to illustrate how much a billion is.

One example I read a long time ago is that a million seconds is just over 11 and a half days; a billion seconds is nearly 32 years. It's a completely immoral amount of money for any one person to control.

oh no everyone is saying Disney Dreamlight Valley is good and it's free on game pass and now I'm installing it and oh no oh no oh no.

Additional play

Multiversus

This gets its big update today where they're completely revamping the hitboxes and the way projectiles work. It might well completely change the way the game plays. I'll definitely be popping back in to check it out again.

One of the all-time best patch notes too - one of Velma's special attacks now summons the Mystery Machine rather than a cop car to take her opponents away. With LeBron James in the game, I think the optics of watching a white woman essentially call the cops on a black man were probably not what the developers intended…

That is incredible.

oh no everyone is saying Disney Dreamlight Valley is good and it's free on game pass and now I'm installing it and oh no oh no oh no.

For some reason it runs at 30fps though, which is a bit annoying. It’s definitely 60fps on PS5.

I played a bit of it last night. It's just Animal Crossing, isn't it? I mean, it's fine, but the sort of thing that I can imagine getting kind of dull quite quickly as progress slows down. I'm aware that I'm firmly in the apparent minority in terms of my tolerance for Animal Crossing, though.

Apparently, the fact that it's far more narrative led (and even offers dialogue options that lead to different responses) makes it better. I dunno. I'll give it a whirl and see.

I don't know that I'd go so far as "narrative led" - not so far, anyway. There are dialogue options, but they're not that different, and it's unclear yet if they have any impact beyond the other character's immediate response.
The "plot", such as it is, is that everyone's got low-grade amnesia because of some purple thorns which began to grow in Dreamlight Valley after the previous ruler (not Mickey, because it's not a Kingdom Hearts crossover… yet) went missing.
Spoiler - click to showIf the previous monarch isn't the player character, I'll eat Wall-E.
It's weirdly un-charming for a Disney game, and the first hour or so are just general busywork - go here, find XYZ, give it to Goofy… we'll see if it goes anywhere more interesting.

Was hoping Tinykin wouldn't lean so hard on the imprecise, irritating, painful typical 3d platforming, but it did exactly that and made me throw it right into the bin. Sorry.

Glad I didn't bother trying it now.

After 2hours of playing I have found just one jump which annoyed me, and after ten seconds I remembered I could float in a bubble and that jump was fine too.

Additional Play: Far Cry 5

Haven't played one of these since Far Cry 2 and I have to say the series doesn't really seem to have come on all that much. There's still the same big map with lots of icons and you still communicate mostly by blowing things up. However, in this the bad guys are all bible-thumping rednecks, MAGA twats and Trump supporters, so there's a huge amount of fun to be had in taking them down, and it's just good simple ultraviolent fun. Nice to play something big and expansive that doesn't require a million tutorials to work out how to play.

They haven’t come on much since 2, but they haven’t come on at ALL since 3. The last four games have basically been map packs, but they are reliably fun. Doing a stealth takedown of a base/camp/whatever they’re called this year is always a joy.

I never really took to Far Cry, I was always a Just Cause man… seemed more empowering from an action hero perspective, much more ridiculous and explosive. Still follows the Ubi pattern of icons-on-maps bullshit, but there you go…

(Going even further down the rabbit hole, Mercenaries on Xbox was very much my jam… but playing it on BC, it's aged horrifically from a jank perspective… oh well)

I think it's weird, given how the series started, the route they've chosen to take with sequels. The original Far Cry was B-movie sci-fi, but since then it's been, like… armchair-psychology meditations on human nature and sanity?

There was an Xbox Far Cry game (Far Cry Instincts: Predator) that I remember enjoying. It started out like the original (guy ferries CIA agent to mysterious island, turns out there's some mad scientific experiment stuff going on), then you get super powers. It probably doesn't hold up.

There was an Xbox Far Cry game (Far Cry Instincts: Predator) that I remember enjoying. It started out like the original (guy ferries CIA agent to mysterious island, turns out there's some mad scientific experiment stuff going on), then you get super powers. It probably doesn't hold up.

Pretty sure that was the original Far Cry, which they then re-released and remastered… the first Far Cry was about you getting experimented on and turning into a man with special animalistic powers. Pretty sure, anyway.

EDIT: I should have checked that wiki link you provided, the info is right there… sigh.

Yes, Far Cry is one of those series that got "rebooted" but was actually a totally different set of games just using the same name. Prey was another one.

I'm really enjoying Far Cry 5 though. I don't even really know what I'm trying to achieve most of the time but I'm ambling around blowing stuff up and having a great time. There's always something over the next ridge to see and I found it quite hard to stop playing this morning.

Anyone tempted to try it on Game Pass might want to note that it has an optional FPS Boost mode which you need to go into the Compatibility Options screen to enable. The resolution takes a hit but it runs at 60fps which is very nice.

I don't know what possessed me, but I've been playing Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Is very much the Ubisoft-does-Breath of the World everybody said, burying the simplicity of Nintendo's game in more map icons and collectables than anybody realistically asked for.

It's a breezy enough time killer, and suitable to play with the kid around, but it's not a game I think I'd ever miss. I expect once I'm back at work next week and it's out of sight, I'll never be back to it.

I have not played a single second of Far Cry post 2 and I feel like Far Cry 3 is where they found their master formula or at least where the series truly became what it was today, every time I consider buying one a new one comes out though…

Play

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht - After two and a bit open world epic JRPG Xeno games I am very glad this is essentially a traditional RPG with so many long cutscenes I barely even need to do anything but walk the straight lines between them. Thankfully, I find it fun to play when you get to do so (let's be honest, it has much better combat and dungeons than Xenogears), and the story is full on 'Xeno-' loaded sci-fi/philosophy/religious themes and references and vague links and I am extremely about that shit tbh. I am absolutely in awe of how cool the one time Namco poster girl for cameos, KOS-MOS is, a sleek android who can summon Gatling Guns out of thin air and turn her hands into cannons and swords and punch massive cracks in spaceship windows that can withstand space debris impacts.

The rumours of a HD remaster for all three have come up yet again and since I'm playing through the first they are probably true this time so everyone is very welcome for my sacrifice.

Trails of Cold Steel - On the Vita, I bought this a while back and never finished it because I don't get a lot of time to play it but shit commute game or not I will just cut through it bit by bit if I have to. It's not my favourite game in the series but it is a bit of a special game for me and probably my favourite of the four Cold Steel arc games, something I couldn't say if I didn't play the previous five games which really build up the Erebonian Empire on which this arc is set and based.

Besides that it's still got a fun combat system imo even if the sequels expotentially improved upon it in the gameplay department, including having mech combat.

Want - someone to replace the Fan Translation group that got nuked by NISA so we can get Kuro no Kiseki 2 sometime before 20-fucking-26, for reference, It comes out in two weeks in Japan, and it's the sequel to Kuro no Kiseki 1 which hasn't got a release date yet in EU and Kuro no Kiseki 1 is a sequel to Hajimari no Kiseki which hasn't got a release date yet in EU other than a vague 'next year' so we're three games behind in a period where games are a few months apart at worst or straight up simultaneous worldwide releases, like Tales of Arise. These Fan Translations were an alternative for that, thanks to them I am only one game behind instead of three and no one got hurt in this process because most people bought the games officially off Japanese PSN or Steam anyway and were planning to double dip. There seemed to be a peaceful co-existence between 'us' until one day they decided to just roll over a group of passionate fans and remove that alternative option for…why exactly? Greed? Ego? Whatever the reason is, I'm sure they were legally right but morally it just leaves a very sour taste in my mouth.

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NISA - If your official translations take longer to come out then the game takes to make and a fan group puts out work several years before you maybe you're just really bad at this? I was going to double dip on Hajimari/'Trails to Reverie' when it comes out over here next year and now I can't bring myself to, nor can I bring myself to buy Trails to Zero this month (which comparitively looks like dogshit on PS4 compared to PC/Switch, were you ever going to mention that lol). I've heard people say boycotting NISA over this is childish and people directly linked to the company taking the line of 'Not only should you not boycott, but you should be actively buying because you will kill the series if you don't' which as a debating tactic makes me want to fucking vomit, but also very weird for people to suddenly assume control of my wallet like that.

EDIT -sorry for people being currently subjected to my pathetic flailing on the floor about this on Twitter all week, and bringing that to here, but I'm still really bummed out about it.

people directly linked to the company taking the line of 'Not only should you not boycott, but you should be actively buying because you will kill the series if you don't'

Having worked at a smaller UK publisher that did similar deals with Japanese companies to bring their games to the west, I'm sorry to say it's true. If stuff doesn't sell, minimum guarantees paid for deals/development end up eating into the pockets of publishers… they're not going to do deals that cause them to take a loss, so future deals don't happen. Other publishers might take up the baton but, if they see what happened previously, why would they? And then those deals fall through, developers making such series take massive losses (they often need the money from such deals to finish their games) and then games die. That's the facts.

Not justifying NISA's approach or how long they take to do stuff, but come on Al… you don't support the paths that such things take, those paths get shut down. Fan groups might give you the satisfaction you need, but that then just takes money out of the pockets of the people making the things you love. You can't have it both ways.

Fan groups might give you the satisfaction you need, but that then just takes money out of the pockets of the people making the things you love.

I mean, I was fully intending to buy it in the west for sure, as well as Trails from Zero this month and Trails to Reverie next year. I can't speak for everyone but I know many people were in the same position too. Whatever, I got like 3-4 years to figure out what to do about this, not that there's really anything I can do but cope

Bloody hell, Immortality is actually as good as all the reviews. I've genuinely never experienced anything like it. I would recommend to anyone here or anyone interested in what games can be. There are more layers everytime we play.

It's fascinating playing it alongside Elden Ring too - the latter is one of the best (if not the best) game-game I've ever played, but is a culmination of everything that went before. A refinement, a focusing. Immortality is something else entirely, a whole new branch of the tree. It's been ages since I've felt like this about gaming, like it's a genuinely exciting time to be part of the way things are heading.

Probably not a coincidence it's happening as the real world goes to shit…

Immortality still has me thinking about it. It was something special.

Play

Just Splatoon 3 at the moment. Posted it in the Splatoon thread.

Want

You Suck at Parking

This looks like a lot of fun. For anyone who hasn't seen it. It's a top down car game where you have to drive through crazy levels and try and perfectly park at the end. It's out today on game pass, so I'll be looking forward to that later tonight.

Metal: Hellsinger

Basically Doom with a gimmick attached to it. You have to shoot in time to the music while playing. Out tomorrow on game pass. Hoping it's good.

Bin

Immortal Fenyx Rising

This isn't for me at all. Not really a fan of the open world Ubisoft type of games. The humor kinda makes my eyes roll it's so cringe. I might be too harsh on it but it's plays like a outdated Xbox 360 game to me.

Star War Fallen Order

Really wanted to like this. I even played it for about 5 hours before putting it in the bin. I just find it boring. Up to the point I've been playing I'm always alone in the middle of nowhere fighting animals. I also can't get over the fact that the lightsaber feels like a baseball bat in a uninspiring battle system.

Finally dipped into Atelier Ryza 2 proper after I got it knowing full well Tales of Arise was coming out at the time, then it just slipped further and further away until we reach this point. Not going to pretend the Farming sims in the Nintendo Direct didn't make me think of this, specifically that some of them had a combat system as well as farming just like this.

…I might just have somehow convinced myself into not bothering with those other games because this game/series just nails the comfy vibes and the fun gameplay as it is. It's all down to how important the alchemy is in this, it's not a gimmick it's the entire point of the game. Everything you use in the combat system can be made by you and to a certain specification, why buy a Steel Sword when you can make a Steel Sword +15 with Critical boost and Double Attack? Everything you can pick up is an ingredient and harvesting materials is just so addictive and you will find yourself going out of your way to get as many shinies as you see 'just in case I need it to make X or Y'.

This sounds super nerdy and clinical probably, but Atelia Ryza is a really upbeat and colourful JRPG where everyone is mostly best friends and I can't speak for the second game yet, but the first was just about her helping her community with her newfound Alchemy knowledge, when the JRPG plot™ kicked in it was pretty low stakes compared to other god slaying RPGs…I think you just end up killing a Queen bug or something?

I may just wait for Atelier Ryza 3 instead of those other games…

If anyone buys Neon White on Steam, please add me because I have had a ton of fun trying and beating Luscan's times by mere miliseconds, he's the only one on my list with it though.

If you don't know what it is, it's a FPS where you do short time trials based around shooting demons and getting to the end as fast as you can, you do this by picking up cards that you either use their primary function by 'using' the card or secondary function by discarding it, for example the machine gun card has a rapid shot ability but discarding it turns it into a bomb you throw. The second level makes you kill a group of demons in a circle group in front of you and you can either shoot them all and run round to the goal or shoot them or do what I did and shoot them, then launch myself at the goal with the expolosion from discarding it to shave time.

I definitely want to get this, it's been on my Switch wishlist since launch. Waiting for a discount before I bite.

It's super good, reminds me of Super Meat Boy in that it was also super addictive and had instant restarts, without being as bastard hard. I got in on PC for the controls but I can see this being perfect on the Switch assuming handheld mode works out just fine because this gme is made for quick 'one more try's.

Turns out it's on discount this week for Switch, and I had lots of gold points from where I've redeemed work codes that didn't cost me anything. Brought it down to sub-£10. Yoink.

Absolute steal imo, I like that it's actually not just about running and jumping and shooting really fast, there's like a hub and in it you can talk to people and give them gifts you find in each level (so you can redo every level and try to find them/reach them) which unlocks more dialogue/story and according to the gauge for each character, 'sidequests', whatever those entail. This all wrapped up by some pretty slick presentation too imo, I don't think I can fault anything about this game at all, easy 10/10.

Playing Deathloop. Not really getting why everyone's saying it's incredible, it's a mediocre shooter with some shonky stealth mechanics, swearing for the sake of swearing, and a time loop setup that I'm already annoyed with. Am I playing it wrong?

BIN
Deathloop - Nope. Like a clunky mix of Dishonored, We Happy Few and an incredibly mediocre FPS. Deleted.

(and Metal Hellsinger got binned too because I don't have the patience for it).

Just picked up The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe and Rogue Legacy 2 (which I didn't even realise was out on Xbox yet!) for less than a tenner combined. God bless eneba.com and god bless Argentinian Xbox codes.

There's been some top flight Martonomics going on this week. Perhaps you could have a word with Liz Truss? She probably hasn't even considered that she could pay off the national debt with Microsoft Rewards points and judicious use of the Argentinian store.

Play
Archvale - The end of game boss is kicking my ass though.

Bin
Archvale probably, although it has been a great game.

Play
Trombone Champ. If you're not sure what this is, don't look it up or click the spoiler I'm going to add below, just go to Steam and pay the £11.39 to get this game - no, experience - in your life. If you trust me at all, and you absolutely shouldn't, just do what I say. You won't regret it.

For the weak-willed -

Spoiler - click to show

Are spoilers broken?

Interesting definition of ‘Perfect’ tromboning.

I assume that’s the verb.