PWB: November 2019

Play

Lonely Mountains: Downhill. I really love this. It looks like a time trial game but it isn't really, it's a game about exploration: finding the best routes down each mountain, chancing your neck on ridiculous shortcuts and generally riding like an eight-year-old that's eaten too many Haribo. Each route is broken up into bite-sized checkpoints that you can try over and over until you've got a time you're happy with, so the frustration of something like Trials where you do the whole course then spanner it right at the end every time is removed. The challenges are tough but fair and the whole game is simply beautiful, with a striking low-poly look and the most gorgeous colour palette I've seen for a long time. Genuinely compelling stuff.

Luigi's Mansion 3. Only just started this and most of the hour I've played has been cut-scenes, but it looks stunning and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it. Just need to unlock the two-player mode so my boy can join me.

Want

Need to decide what to play next. Feels odd without a big story-driven game to make my way through. I think it might finally be time to take a look at The Witcher 3.

Shenmue III is out in a couple of weeks. I still can't quite believe that's a thing. Actually I should probably go back and finish off my playthrough of the second game, in the meantime.

Bin

Shadow of Mordor. One of the worst cases of Superfluous Season Pass Syndrome I've ever seen. I really enjoyed the main game - enough to go back and 100% it in the end - and was looking forward to the DLC that came with the GOTY edition, but it's very lazy. It's all the same stuff on the same maps - here are some more orcs! With slightly different abilities! - and the cut-scene budget was clearly reduced so there's a lot of following other characters around slowly while they dump exposition on you. Also you're totally overpowered now, with all abilities unlocked, and without the constant drip-feed of new powers a lot of the impetus to continue is removed. I guess maybe if I give it some time, I'll be more inclined to go back to it, but honestly I don't think I'll bother and if I get the urge for more Mordor (more-dor?) then I'll probably just jump straight to the sequel.

Play
The Outer Worlds – Is no-one else playing this? Considering how much you lot loved Alpha Protocol, I thought you'd be all over this. I'm having a blast with it. Fun quests, excellent writing, solid gunplay and a genuinely intriguing galaxy to explore. It has a narrower focus than some RPGs, but that's a positive in my opinion.

Luigi's Mansion 3 – Absolutely bloody lovely. Each floor of the hotel is its own Sunday-morning cartoon, and it's never anything less than delightful. Poking every corner for secrets is just as much fun as the main game, too.

Want
Pokemon, Respawn's Star Wars, and I'm trying to convince myself I don't need the Switch exercise game.

Play
Return of the Obra Dinn - loving this, got a fair few identities solved now which should make the end run a lot easier. Some of the causes of death were tripping me up (people being burned or exploded rather than crushed).

The Witcher 3 - I think this will be what I pick up next. That said there has been a hell of a lot of DLC for Hitman released since I picked it up last.

Want
Death Stranding - do I, don't I, I don't know. I'd like to rent it.

Bin
Can't be arsed to meet all the requirements to get the final, final, ending of MGSV.

Play
The Outer Worlds – Is no-one else playing this? Considering how much you lot loved Alpha Protocol, I thought you'd be all over this. I'm having a blast with it. Fun quests, excellent writing, solid gunplay and a genuinely intriguing galaxy to explore. It has a narrower focus than some RPGs, but that's a positive in my opinion.

Luigi's Mansion 3 – Absolutely bloody lovely. Each floor of the hotel is its own Sunday-morning cartoon, and it's never anything less than delightful. Poking every corner for secrets is just as much fun as the main game, too.

Want
Pokemon, Respawn's Star Wars, and I'm trying to convince myself I don't need the Switch exercise game.

I've been deeply disappointed with Outer Worlds. It's bland, clunky and has an entire RPG framework that makes next to no difference to the gameplay. Even little stuff, like the door opening and weapon holster on the same button is irritating. The by-the-numbers videogame quests "wooo, go off to this place and there'll be a moral dilemma for ya!" and terrible facial animation are the icing on the blandcake. It isn't fit to lick Alpha Protocol's ankles.

I have been really enjoying Dragon's Dogma though. A game that has a creative take on any number of videogame tropes and doesn't just not-hold-your-hand, but violently thrusts you away and sprints off in the other direction. I, literally, have no idea where I'm supposed to go, what I'm supposed to do, or even if I'm anywhere the place I'm supposed to be, but it's awesome. And the combat is sooooo good. And difficult. Everything Outer Worlds isn't.

Also dabbled in Hollow Knight (I don't get it, why is it so popular) and have been playing a lot of Sea of Thieves in our playgroup after we're done with boardgames which is an absolute fucking delight.

Also dabbled in Hollow Knight (I don't get it, why is it so popular)

Jeez, THANK YOU. I'm not alone after all.

Play
D&D (for grown ups) - The game actually got cancelled this week but I am super excited for next week. The group are in the middle of a massive fight and they have already used up a ton of their abilities and lost a lot of HP.

D&D (for teenagers) - I've run three sessions now of D&D 5th for my son and his friends. We are using the adventure in the starter set and it's really good. Interesting & varied dungeons, a town with lots of people to chat to and half a dozen quests to do. The party mage died last session too (Bugbears are tough in 5e) which came as a bit of a surprise to the players - turns out none of them had ever seen a PC die before.

WWE 2k18 - I'm annoyed just typing 2k18. WTF is wrong with 2018? I'm staying focused on my uni work by telling myself that this is the only videogame I'm allowed to play.

Want
Luigi's Mansion 3 looks like the right sort of pace for me.

The Donkey Kong levels of Mario vs Rabbids I was going to buy them when they were on sale but for whatever reason I didn't. Now I really want to play them.

Pokemon Sword & Shield looks stunning. Christmas Present for Little Miss Bloodaxe I think.

Bin
Roadworks. Edinburgh City Council are about to build a tram line down Leith Walk to Ocean Terminal. To facilitate this they have given themselves about six months to resurface every road which connects to Leith Walk and every road running parallel to it because that's where all the traffic will be diverted to for the duration. I live off to one side of Leith Walk, my wife's work and both my kids' schools are on the other side.

Play

The Outer Worlds - barely started, really liked what I saw, decided to bugger off and played Dishonored 2 for some reason.

Dishonored 2 - started a game, prompted decided that the character I'd picked wasn't really the one you were supposed to play with, and restarted. Took a surprisingly long time to get any powers, after that, but it is good, and I'm amazed at how much better it looks than the PS4 version of the first (which I played fairly recently), even factoring in that it's still not the most attractive game on the console, and the first was originally built for the last gen.

Horizon Chase Turbo - I decided ages ago that this (PS+ freebie) looked like a shitty mobile game, and for the life of me I'm not sure how I've ended up playing it (certainly so much), but it's actually pretty good; a low-poly homage to arcade racers from the Outrun era that works much better than I expected.

Overwatch - apparently I'm incapable of giving up all of the Blizzard games at once. The role queue in Competitive and some of the newer characters are making this enjoyable again though, and I've always loved the gameplay and character(s), so I'm happy to chuck an hour or two a week in the direction of something like this..

Want

Cyberpunk 2077, Doom Eternal and Journey to the Savage Planet are the only things in my PSN wishlist. Overwatch 2 could be interesting too, partially because it's going to have (an updated version of) Overwatch built into it, but also because it will have co-op modes that appeal to my better half (who's always liked the look of the world, but is utterly averse to competitive online games).

Bin

Apple Arcade has ceased to be of any real interest, at least for the time being, so that's been cancelled. I can't really think of anything else, though I did play Hearthstone again for a little while a few weeks back, just to reach a self-imposed goal (so I could feel like I'd "finished" it), and so now I'm (hopefully) done with that again too.

Play: Still getting through God of War. I’ve no idea where I am in terms of completion & haven’t played it for about a week but I like it a huge amount. Have the additional weapon and a tonne of moves for every aspect of combat, enemies that were showing as too tough for my early build are now doable and the whole spectacle of the game seems to be far from dulling (even if the appearance of a troll is getting a little bit rote at this point… Oh wait, last time I fought a troll it was two trolls so that's okay I guess).
I’ve remembered: Kratos has got to go back up the mountain! I’m still slightly wary of how the ultimate goal is presented, are there players out there who’ve managed to avoid side quests (aside form the story based ones)? There was a piece I read with Cory Barlog about the game where he was talking about the fight he had to have to make content that players may never see and it’s kind of understandable in the way that they’ve hardly sign posted that this stuff exists in the world. That sense of exploration along with the combat is primarily why I love the game so much. The dialogue and story are pretty great too. Overwhelmingly it’s still such a surprise that they’ve done this with God of War.

Want: I got What Remains of Edith Finch and Mudrunner in various sales so time to play them at some point but they were gambles based on hitting lower price points than in previous sales so no rush.
Death Stranding I guess. HYPE.

Bin: Being ill. Everyone has been ill in our house on and off for the last month. 3/4 have had flu, 4/4 have had colds, 1/4 has rarely puked in her life but has been experiencing it for the first time thanks to a really awful cough. Just less of all that would be nice.

I'm doing all I can. The aim is for cavalcade to eradicate all disease by 2025.

Which character aare you supposed to play in Dishonoured 2? I picked the lady one, got up to the first stealth bit (I appreciate the entire game is stealth) and gave up. I liked the first one though.

Which character aare you supposed to play in Dishonoured 2? I picked the lady one, got up to the first stealth bit (I appreciate the entire game is stealth) and gave up. I liked the first one though.

I picked Corvo first, but then almost by the time the opening cutscene had finished playing I'd decided that the whole thing felt like it had really been designed with Emily in mind, as there are little story beats that just seem to fit better from her point of view (even though they have been changed to fit if you play as Corvo instead), so I went back and switched.

I've only done the first two missions so far (one without powers, one with), and haven't been back in a few days, but will hopefully get a chance to push on this weekend.

PLAY
Luigi's Mansion 3 - Loving it. Going through in co-op with my partner, since I'm at hers for the next week and a half on holiday. We're taking our time, don't want to rush the story bit. Just getting to the third floor today. Such a pretty game, so detailed. No control issues either, though I get the fact that it could explain the buttons better.

I've gone back to my half-completed playthrough of Shenmue II to finish it off before the third one arrived. Enjoying it more now, I definitely made a mistake going straight from the first to the second as they are very different really. I'm savouring its stately charm and I've just reached Kowloon which from memory is the bit at which it gets really good.

I've only done the first two missions so far (one without powers, one with), and haven't been back in a few days, but will hopefully get a chance to push on this weekend.

I stopped after the 4th mission. I don't feel bad about it in any way or, really, any inclination to go back to play more. That mission is excellent, it's hard to see how the later game would top it and I'll probably never find out – think I played the first one and the DLC too much and lost interest in the sequel.

Play

FFXIV - Shadowbringers - New patch, new boss fights and gear, new 24 man raid set in the Nier universe. I tried it and it was fun, they got the Nier look and gameplay down so that was neat. New beast tribe the Fairies and a rather spiffy looking new dungeon through a castle.

Tales ofVesperia - OMG finally, not very far but I'm enjoying it now I'veb een eased into combat slowly. So far I'm liking Yuri and Estelle, the latter of who seems to have been born yesterday, but she does make laugh. The 'carnival music' made me laugh too because I remember Mr Party Hat hating it lmao

Clannad - Not started it yet, but I have it on Switch. It has English Text option so I got it whilst in Japan. It's a Visual Novel the animated series was based on, which was like…romance, slice of life and a bit of mystical elements.

Want

Shenmue 3 - I am pretty sceptical they an do an ending that will please everyone, especially after the Magic Cave of Floating Swords. Will Ryo get his revenge, Hollywood style? Will he heed Li Shao Tao's advice and stop? Somehow, someway I wanna' see Lan Di anwer fr his crime though and besides that if the game has a lot of you walking around a new area and Shenmue things happening I'll prob like it.

Pokemon Sword and Shield - some of Pokemon who didn't make it really hurts, but everything else I've seen looks good.

The Outer Worlds - Sounds really good but I dunno' when I can play this.

Bin

When you buy a new figurine or in my case, Nendoroid, and they come with tiny, tiny pieces that threaten to drop out the box and dissapear forever. I got Nadeshiko from Yuru Camp and she comes with like 3 different faces, tiny pieces like a phone, ladel, soup bowl (she's a camper girl). It's a nightmare

Shenmue 3 - I am pretty sceptical they an do an ending that will please everyone

At the current pace you'll have to wait a very long time to find that out. Shenmue III apparently ends with us about 40% of the way through Ryo's story. It's not the end of the saga.

Oh, lol. Well coming from a Kingdm Hearts fan I'll just say…after a certain amount of time you just stop caring tbh.

OMG I FOUND IT

@"Mr Party Hat" @"Mr Party Hat" @"Mr Party Hat"

I have no memory of that music. But yes it's fucking horrific isn't it.

It plays during most light hearted/comedy sections too so it's pretty frequent, I see you've purged your memory of it though. XD

Tales of Vesperia does have the best opening JRPG song ever though to be fair.

Yes!!!!

LIVING THE PAST IS NOT THE WAY TO LIVE
I WISH YOU COULD HEAR ME SAY THAT I MISS YOU

WHY WERE WE THERE BACK TO BACK
WHY WERE WE THERE FACE TO FACE

Also considering I wasn't sure about the combat for this it's really dropped an absolute shit ton of stuff on me now, not only is there there stuff like Over Limit and chaining Artes but I have soooo many weapons and with them, weapon skills, more than I have the SP for. So now I'm trying to find a good build for everyone, it's amazing. Team composition, skill set and of course how good you are at avoiding damage and squeezing as much out yourself in a way I can't remember from most action RPG's off the top of my head (there are even infinite combos for some characters).

This game does something I think should be fucking mandatory for all big RPG's with more characterst han youh ave in a single party at any one time…our of Party EXP! It really fucks me off when a game doesn't have that, IIRC every Xenoblade Chronicles games has it (and X really took the piss with howm any people there were to level). Alas, it doesn't have real time party member control swapping nor does it have the Gambit system from FFXII which I considered one of the best things about that game and everyone was like 'It PlaYS ItsElf' but I thiiiiiiink I'd rather have the EXP thing so it's all good.

How do I feel about Vesperia? I honestly could stand to play this for a long time, I hope it doesn't end anytime soon. I dunno' why it's clicked so much, maybe it's my decade long repressed urge to finally play a Tales game (this certainly won't be my last either, already eyeing up Berseria! Depends when Arises is out next year) being satisfied but even though it's very typically JRPG and doesn't do anything new it just turned out to be exactly what I expected and wanted. I guess I could have fulfilled this need with Dragon Quest XI but I've beaten DQ8 and not touched a Tales game as I said and I think I made a right choice.

Ristelle forever!!!!

Bin

Tales of Vesperia - almost 80 glorious hours of anime as fuck JRPG. I wish this game never ended, but all good things come to an end. I already miss the characters and the pretty graphics, it's like how Dragon Quest is for most people that like that series (I too liked DQ8) now I've found this series I can say it's something I've needed for a while, games like Shenmue and Pokemon are all well and good of coure but sometimes you need to load up a game into an Anime FMV opening with jpop and play as a naturally blue haired boy/girl with a big sword who has an attack where he screams "GALACTIC CALAMITY! MY SOUL BURNS!" and then cuts the world in half. So with that in mind, and also in mind I have recently acquired a fair amount of Tales games…

Play

Tales of Xillia

Despite me playing two potentially super long games in Shenmue and Pokemon I couldn't resist. It was either this, Tales of Graces F and Tales of Symphonia. I'm aware that Symphonia is the other big games besides Vesperia so I think I'll push it back a bit. Ideally I wanted to jump into Berseria or maybe Zestiria but I had neither (I got Zestiria today the day after though, so I should have just waited :facepalm:) so I plumped for Xillia.

…

I'm REALLY enjoying it, this battle system is the absolute shit. It's a newer game than Vesperia, a game with fairly deeper combat than you think, and the combat is so much smoother and fluid, I'm having so much fun just doing combos into special skills with punching punchy boi Jude, who is one of two main characters, with the other being I hear first female main in the series(?) Milla Maxwell the Lord of Spirits.

I'm looking forward to jumping back in purely for the gameplay, I want to level up and set up artes and skills. But I'm fairly intrigued by the story right now, what little I have seen. You can choose between Jude and Milla at the start, you still get to play as either in battle but I hear they'll split up at parts and you'll follow whoever you chose. I didn't even know Milla wasn't a human, she's practically a God who approaches human interaction and I'm liking her attempts to understand humans so far.

UPDATE - I bought another Tales game, for the Vita, I can not be stopped. Wasn't going to until I heard the story is cheesy and talks about Hearts and Bonding I was like 'Yespls'.

Played: Finished God of War the other night. The ending was pretty abrupt when it finally came but I enjoyed the way it wrapped up once you get the lads back home and how it managed to then let the player back into the world to tie up loose ends.
The only problem I'm having is it's not all that interesting to explore the world without much in the way of threat. All I've really got left are some chests that I missed or didn't have the right equipment to open, some of those rifts, the Valkyrie side quest and the Arena fights. I also can't figure out if I massively fucked up by upgrading useless items and moves that I've never really used or I've not understood the way I should be upgrading my gear and collecting new armour sets…
Anyway, it's not getting binned just yet.

Played: Finished God of War the other night. The ending was pretty abrupt…

Spoiler - click to showGo back to their house.

Played: Finished God of War the other night. The ending was pretty abrupt…

Spoiler - click to showGo back to their house.

Did that and was impressed with that final final part of the ending. I thought that getting up the mountain would have more emotional impact because there was quite a lot of stuff in the game, particularly the father/son dynamic, that I found really affecting.
The final reveal for Faye and the predetermined nature of the path to get where you were going all seemed to happen really quickly. Spoiler - click to showAnd then for all the foreshadowing of Odin as a big bad who's after Kratos and Atreus it's sort of impressive that he never actually appears

I've been reading around side quests and come to realise that there's a realm I've not traveled to yet so still have a good bit of exploring to do.