PWB January 24

Another year comes and goes and still the greybeards of the Society gather on a monthly basis to discuss their Plays, Wants and Bins. I think we've passed our 20-year anniversary now.

Play

The Elder Scrolls Online. This flies under a lot of people's radars because it's an MMO but it's secretly the best single-player Elder Scrolls game too. It's absolutely stuffed with stories, quests and things to find and do. It's got really high production values (they've finally fixed their wacky HDR and it looks glorious, plus it's got full voice acting and a really great console UI with huge easy-to-read fonts which is not something you normally associate with the genre). It lets you visit bits of Tamriel you've seen before, and plenty that you don't, and you can jump into any part of it at any time without having to put hundreds of hours into content you don't want to play. It's just a great storytelling engine, perfect for the times when you just want to sit back and enjoy a straightforward fantasy adventure, and I've said before that it does everything Starfield wanted to do this year but better. It's odd that more people don't play this.

Dave the Diver. The first of what will no doubt be a long list of Steam Deck discoveries for me - this is good, it's got a compulsive little loop and keeps throwing new things into the mix, but I'm not sure how long it'll keep me hooked. I'm not sure either the diving or the restaurant parts are going to be quite compelling enough, and like a lot of roguelikes it quickly gets repetitive. On the other hand I'm still quite early in the game and it might well have more things to add. We'll see.

Hand of Fate. An old favourite, another roguelike of sorts where you play a strange card game against a sinister dealer. I love this - the structure is clever, the Dealer is a fabulous antagonist and it keeps surprising you as you play. Again, perfect on Deck.

Want

Still keeping an eye on Assassin's Creed: Mirage, sub-£30 and I'll bite.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is out this month, it's an essential purchase for sure although I haven't even touched the last one (Gaiden) yet.

Bin

Not a Bin as such but I started Cyberpunk 2077 over the Christmas break and bounced off it pretty quickly, I just don't think I was in the mood. I'll go back to it in due course I'm sure.

I'm glad to see the back of 2023 though, one of the worst years I can remember. Roll on 2024, onwards and upwards etc etc.

Play

I've mostly been pottering around in Timberborn, a low-tech citybuilder where you attempt to guide a colony of beavers. I've encountered the same issue with my tactics as I did in Steamworld Build, though – over-expansion of the population without the infrastructure to back it up. I've narrowly scraped through a couple of nasty droughts, and think I've started to learn my lesson there. Though I've also just unlocked dynamite for terrain modification, so I've been inexpertly altering the flow of the river to varying results as a new way to totally mess myself up.

On a similar theme, Against the Storm is a weird hybrid of card-builder and citybuilder, with a roguelike progression that sees you venture out into a wilderness to build settlements that can feed your central city, until they get wiped out by a cyclical storm. It's much slower paced than I'd expected for the cardbuilding thing, but I really like its atmosphere and art. Not sure how much depth it can have when progression is semi-randomised (both through the per-settlement unlocks and the procedural environments) but it's worth a look if you've got PC Gamepass.

Want

Picked up Cyberpunk 2077 in a sale for Xbox, but haven't gotten to it yet. I was never all that excited about it at launch, but the combination of a lot of positive noise about its technical fixes and a cheap price overcame my trepidation. Looking forward to giving it 20 minutes and then not returning for six months, once we get back to Dundee.

I keep hearing good things about Cobalt Core from people who were similarly enthusiastic about Slay the Spire, so that's creeping up the wishlist.

Bin

I gave Human Resource Machine a decent chance, but its script reduction targets just don't make sense to me. I've looked up guides for some of them and I don't understand why putting the same instructions in a different order suddenly halves the number of operations. So that's lost its appeal, especially now that I'm heading back to work and programming all day for that.

Play
I'm still trying to mop up the last bits of Horizon Forbidden West, spurred on by the fact that I appeared to be basically at the end already when I abandoned it before. It's not as good as the first one, but I'm having a good time with it, even if it does have far too many inconsequential systems bolted on (on Normal difficulty, at least, I haven't had to engage much with weapon or armor upgrades, and not at all with cooking or the Machine Strike minigame).

Despite being almost finished both Forbidden West and Baldur's Gate III, plus having also started God of War Ragnarök for some reason, I additionally caved on Assassin's Creed Mirage. I'm only about an hour in, but: so far, so Assassin's Creed.

Want
Still just FFVII Rebirth.

Bin
We've had about a dozen power cuts in three days. Enough now, please.

Another year comes and goes and still the greybeards of the Society gather on a monthly basis to discuss their Plays, Wants and Bins. I think we've passed our 20-year anniversary now.

I think the Soc is almost exactly as old as my eldest child, which puts the 20th anniversary in April.

Play
I've been replaying Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. I thought that playing it with a different squad would maintain the perfect difficulty curve of the first playthrough, but no, it was all a bit too easy on the replay. But still, it was a fun lazy distraction over the holidays. Of course now I can grab Sparks of Hope for £15 and I'm not feeling the urge to play another one right now.

A friend has told me that I need to play Dark Souls and so has given me his cart. I guess that's next.

Want
Maybe Pikmin 4?

There's a theme this month.

Play
Final Fantasy 16. This is becoming a bit of a slog. I'm just following the main quest through now, which involves lots of running between characters and chatting. But it's been a brilliant experience overall; hopefully the pace picks back up towards the end.

Final Fantasy 9. I never played this back in the day. Playing it now on PC with Moguri Mod, which uses AI to upscale the hand-drawn backgrounds. It does a surprisingly good job. I've only just started (currently in the forest), but aesthetically it's already my favourite FF game.

In a blast from 2010, I've been playing

Split/Second Velocity on the PC. I adored this at the time on the 360 and played it to death - to the point I got all the achievements, one of which is being in the top 100 in ranked or something IIRC - and fancied revisiting it. It was always a game I slightly preferred to Blur, even though i think most people would rate them the other way round (a Blur re-release would probably do really well these days, it's absolutely made for streaming and content creation).

Anyway, I picked up a cheap key and to my dismay found it was locked to 30fps on PC. Add in some terrible frame timings and it was pretty poor to play. Still looked good mind you (we really haven't moved on much from 2010), but some digging found there were a few mods to try to lock it to 60. After trying this with the Steam version for a bit I gave up and downloaded a pre-patched hooky version. And…. it's OK. Even at 60 (which it was never designed to run at) the thing feels juddery and a bit off, but if you get past that the same brilliant game is still underneath. There's so much to like about it - the concept, the enemy driver AI and the intelligent way it deals with the Mario problem of being hit by a power up being annoying. You can outdrive many of the hazards and it feels like you're in a Fast and Furious movie. It's such a shame we had this moment in time with Blur and S/S where racing games were freestyling and innovating, and now we have kart racers or the po-faced GT7 and Forza Motorsport. Hell, even Horizon is po-faced compared to this. And yes, I do know about the Hotwheels games, but the handling model in them is an embarrassment - and it doesn't have any combat abilities. Anyway - in summary, where the fuck is my Blur and Split/Second Remastered at?

After being sparked off by The Finals and its traversal, I also replayed a bit of Titanfall 2 in single player. What an amazing game that is. And The Finals isn't bad either. An absolute sweat-fest but enjoyable all the same. Of all the second-tier possible future eSport titles I think this one might be the best. But let's see if it makes it to 6 months….

I also played some Prodeus - which is amazing. Like classic Doom, but bloodier. And also Necromunda: Hired Gun, which is ragged af, derivative, pretty boring, but does also feature quite a good gun feel and a doggo you can control to bite people.

Want
I have the flu. I want that to end.

Bin
The usual

I'm still trying to mop up the last bits of Horizon Forbidden West, spurred on by the fact that I appeared to be basically at the end already when I abandoned it before.

I was wrong. More side-quests have appeared, and I discovered an entire village I somehow missed before.

I suppose I could just blast to the end of the story, but… there might be Stuff!

Yes, I am part of The Problem.

Play

Trauma Center: Under the Knife - Really good but also pretty damn hard game on the DS about performing surgeries, it's not a simulation it's full on anime style, your doctor even has the ability to sense time move in slow motion and you're going to need it because you'll be making incisions, draining blood, suturing wounds and pulling out impaled pieces of glass all at once. It IS hard but when you get the fast pace of moving from wound to wound like some sort of legend it is very satisfying. There's a sequel on Wii and DS again and apparently the Wii game is more lenient to account for the controls. Anyway after playing this I have to pry my clawed hands off the DS and I feel like it cracks every joint in the entire hand. D:

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
From surgeon to lawyer and with the exact same energy, this is the final case of the first game which is a real doozy but the villain is great, not sure I like the Edgeworth stuff though, I don't think this case is Canon and it shows, pretty sure he gets retconned.

Fate/Extra CCC
Another 10 year old PSP game finally getting translated by fans success story, gameplay wise it's a fun RPG with RPS combat, writing wise it's extremely horny for some reason…the source material, Fate/Stay Night was a visual novel with really explicit sex scenes and it was way less horny than this game. That kind of content doesn't bother me but here it feels really blatant.

Want
To read more Viusual Novels, Utawarerumono, Umineko, White Album 1 and MUV-LUV all sit on my Steam library unread, and now I like Fate again you can add Mahoyo and the Tsukihime remake later in the year to that pile…

I almost bought Split Second to play on my Xbox a couple weeks back.

Under the Knife is nails. I never did manage the last level. Don't bother with the Wii versions.

I'm trying to imagine them, without direct stylus to screen it feels like it'd be nigh impossible to go at the speed and precision you're asked to on DS, must be a vastly different experience.

It is. It works, but it's got none of the tactile satisfaction of the DS games.

Split/Second was £2.24 so it's installing now.

I have already had £2.24 of fun. And considering that that could have been a packet of chocolate hobnobs I do not say that lightly.

Even the time trials are fun!

It's a brilliant game. I have no idea who owns the licence (probably still Disney), but a decent 60fps remaster on current gen would be a thing of wonder.

Starting to wonder if the DS has the best games library @_@

Jdub will tell you.

I'm still trying to mop up the last bits of Horizon Forbidden West, spurred on by the fact that I appeared to be basically at the end already when I abandoned it before.

I was wrong. More side-quests have appeared, and I discovered an entire village I somehow missed before.

I suppose I could just blast to the end of the story, but… there might be Stuff!

Yes, I am part of The Problem.

They were fewer and more straightforward side quests than I thought, and I just finished the main quest. So Forbidden West is added to the Bin - until I cave on the DLC, I suppose, but I have plenty else to be getting on with for now.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
From surgeon to lawyer and with the exact same energy, this is the final case of the first game which is a real doozy but the villain is great, not sure I like the Edgeworth stuff though, I don't think this case is Canon and it shows, pretty sure he gets retconned.

It is canon, kind of, though it was added to the original game much later in one of its re-releases. Ema Skye reappears in later games and Pheonix knows her so this is definitely not throwaway.

Edgeworth is always unpredictable so the fact his character is a bit different next time you see him isn't actually much of a problem.

Yeah, I forgot Ema comes back and honestly, good, she's a great character and had a different dynamic to Maya. As much fun as replaying these games are with a half forgotten memory bank it will be even better to play the new games in the next trilogy (even though I didn't er, realise they were out this month)

I started the mobile version of Dragon Quest 4 today and the idea that I can play a whole ass legendary RPG on my phone with just my thumb blows my mind, I like the game so far a lot AND the version I got. (I almost went for DS but people kept screaming the mobile version is best)

Also it's not the Final Fantasy Victory theme but the high pitched drone you get for winning a fight in Dragon Quest is like a warm hug.

Hello all!

Play

Minecraft - According to the end of year stats we played 177 hours of this in the end last year…just on Xbox as we also played some on Switch! My kid is still bloody obsessed with it though and we are both still off and it never stops bloody raining, so we this is how we go outside.

Frog Detective - This was one of our Xmas gaming finds on GP and it was honestly a blast, it's less a game and more a narrative talking point and click hybrid. It's daft and whacky and bought out that wonderous laugh in my daughter that's irresistible as a parent. Sadly completed all it's little chapters now.

Shadowrun Returns / Shadowrun Dragonfall

Had played the first on PC and started the second on PC too, but moved to the Xbox now and completed the first again and now moved to the 2nd. Really liked this, loved the SNES game of this.

Aliens Dark Descent - only about an hour in but enjoying it. Nice different style and got a decent Alien vibe to it so far.

Advance Wars - nearing the end of the first game now. Still really enjoying this, have reached a stage now where I don't remember any of the missions or maps.

Xcom Chimera squad - restarted this over the break having previously only played about 90 mins, but enjoyed the 4 or so hours I have now put into it.

Want - honestly had a great Xmas and lots of gaming as part of it. Gutted about returning to work and the dredge or even less free time. I want this never to stop.

Bin - thoughts of getting an analogue pocket that still nor on me. This needs to be the year I reduce my collection, not add more esoteric things to it.

(I don't have a turn based problem, I could quit anytime I want…)

I wanted an Analog Pocket but then I changed my mind, like I'd still want one but I don't want to buy it, it's not worth the hassle imo. Also why is that company so weird, they have no stock for that thing for ages then they start releasing glow in the dark and multi coloured and see through versions,add that to the price of the thing itself and they feel kind of full of themselves. Will stick to my Miyoo Mini thanks.

Also Dragon Quest 1-8 (minus 7) are on Android, this could be bad. Playing DQ8 officially on the phone sounds insane honestly, it's too bad the 3DS version sounds like the clear winner or I'd try it, optherwise there's almost zero reason to not play it on 3DS now. 1-3 are cheapo and the first game is supposed to be like 7 hours long albeit very simplistic atthis point, but still. 2024 is Dragon Quest year for me tbh.

Starting to wonder if the DS has the best games library @_@

Jdub will tell you.

Obviously totally depends on what kind of thing you like playing - hardcore shooter fans probably needn't bother - but if you like JRPGs, platformers, puzzle games, and other assorted curios (like Al) then it's wonderful. Of all the consoles I have owned, it's definitely one of my favourites. I just adore it, even if my hands are too big, and my eyes too bad, for me to use it comfortably for too long.

I barely play it anymore, but I am very aware that one day my n3DS will die, and I will be very sad.

Yeah, it's not just that the games are great it's how some of them are so unique in different ways, The World Ends With You (which I can't bring myself to play on anything other than the DS, sorry, maybe it IS good on the Switch) Phoenix Wright, Trauma Center, Kid Icarus etc. RPG wise it's an absolute titan too, don't really need to point out the Pokemon games on there (and most people seem to have either HG/SS or Diamond/Pearl as a favourite gen) but there's also several Dragon Quest games, 3D remakes of FF3 and 4 and Chrono Trigger and more.

Play
Saints Row - Everything that was good about Saints Row has been excised with an almost surgical precision. The blandest, dullest, most creatively bereft game that I can think of for some time. It's full of the same side-activity, the same NPC conversations, the same vehicles, and the same terrible fucking shooting. There are so many collectables and things to do so it's packed full of Content. There's so much Content. Aren't you happy with all this Content?

Star Trek Adventures - Captains Log - This is a neat solo RPG journaling book thing. It generates fun star trek stories.

Want
To get the brain chemicals into a state where I can write a lot for the megagame.

Bin
The slow start to the new year. It's cold, dark and full of terrors.

Play
Baldur's Gate 3 - I've only just started this really. All I've done is create my character and play the first hour or so. I was delighted to discover that, like Cyberpunk 2077, the character creation includes a Build-A-Willy feature. It's not as comprehensive as Cyberpunk's - you can't alter the length or girth - but it's always a welcome addition to a game. One thing I enjoyed is that if you rotate your character left and right you can make their penis jiggle from side to side. This is especially funny on the Gnome characters, although I tried every single race. Don't pretend you didn't too, fellow BG3 players.

The serious point related to all this silliness is that the game lets you choose any formulation of genitals for any character model, which simply and unfussily leads to the complete inclusion of trans characters. You can choose your pronouns as well, which is a pleasingly gammon-baiting option.

The game itself seems great. Sometimes you start a game and within minutes get the feeling that it is going to be very much your kind of thing. The last time I had that was probably Control, and I got the same feeling with BG3.

Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader - I love a bit of 40K of course, and this is a CRPG in the style of Baldur's Gate 1&2 and the old Fallout games, and I also love an old-school CRPG. It's well-written and obsessively detailed, but also hugely intimidating and somewhat clunky. The game is still teaching you extremely complicated bits and pieces five hours in. There's also the problem that it is impossible to play two 100-hour RPGs at the same time. I'm not sure it would be possible to complete them both in a year.

Want
It would be foolish to want more games, as I have no prospect of playing the ones I already own unless I somehow beat the odds and live to 100. Then JDubYes mentions Robocop Rogue City and I start checking the price on CD Keys. I'm an idiot.

Bin
The stress of taking on a job that is different to what you usually do in fundamental ways and proves to require a completely different set of skills and knowledge, and eventually proves to be physically impossible to complete to the standards you set for yourself.

I bought and played Immortals of Aveum so you don't have to.

I definitely think, like in the 2007-2010 period where everything had to have a bleached red/yellow tint to it and a slightly diffuse soft look (e.g. all the Need for Speeds) we now seem to be entering the era of Nanite-esque games, where everything is particles, looks stupendously good at close range, but pretty bad far away. See also Forspoken, which shares a huge amount of DNA with this game as a kinetic shooter with spells, not guns. Both of these games feel very similar graphically, even though one is third person and open world and the other more scripted. I thought the voice acting, script and art direction were pretty similar too. The fact they weren't built with the same engine blows my mind. A lot of the little incidental UI animations, the general UI and some of the interactives in the world are almost identical.

Aveum tries really hard to be good. It has the woman from Firefly/Suits in it (and she also tries really hard with the highly variable script) and tells a story, that while woefully hackneyed, is at least attempting something a bit original. It plays like Doom in a candy factory, and laudably gives it a go on the PS5 to deliver a 60fps performance (it doesn't manage it). The moment to moment gameplay is fine - the usual blast red thing with red spell, green thing with green spell etc - and the only thing that really lets it down is some stodgy traversal (it has the vaguest double jump in gaming history).

But what I keep coming back to is Nanite/Unreal 5 and how we're entering a new wave of games that certainly are going to look, play and feel a little different to before. We'll have to accept developers just putting particles all over the place for no reason. Even if facial animation is clearly still 20 years away from any major improvements.

I know Aveum has done so badly it pretty much shut the studio that made it down. And along with Forspoken it reviewed badly and nobody bought it. But I do think it'll be another stepping point on the road to somewhere.

Another driveby play…. I also know THE KIDZ are big on Remnant 2 which is on Gamepass. So I gave it a shot. This seemed OK. Graphically very pretty with a great gun feel. It's the sort of game I wish I was 18 and at uni and could spend 5 hours a day playing with a couple of mates. But I'm 47 and have responsibilities, so that's not going to happen i guess.

Three chapters in of Dragon Quest 4 on my phone and it's just lovely watching something on Youtube or Twitch while easily grinding Slimes with one hand and not paying much attention. Also the game itself is great, I like that DQ is that RPG series that reassuringly familiar yet also imo quite underrated in terms of how many cool things each game does uniquely or semi-uniquely at least, like how DQ4 narrative is told through multiple protagonists per chapter like a sort of mini Octapath Traveller whereas DQ5 is a story of multiple generations in the same family and has monster capturing. Some games in the series have Job Systems and some do not, even ones that are like super close such as DQ11 and DQ8 still have their own combat and gameplay systems, it's not like every game is ye olde SNES classic RPG.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name fills in the gaps as to what happens to Kiryu between the events of Yakuza 6 and 7. It's supposed to be a side-story but although the main plot is a bit shorter and it's mostly set only in Sotenbori, it's absolutely stuffed to the gills with side activities so it is easily possible to spend as much time on this as any major franchise instalment.

It's wonderfully silly. Kiryu has faked his own death but his plan for remaining undercover is to change his name to Joryu and wear a pair of glasses. He then acts surprised when everyone he meets recognises him immediately. He gets a bunch of secret agent gadgets too including rocket-powered shoes and exploding cigarettes. The game features several series-favourite minigames including the return of Pocket Circuit, as well as some superb new games to play at the arcade (including the legendary Daytona USA2) and for some reason a SEGA Master System with a bunch of ROMs. There's a huge Coliseum section/ongoing distraction where you get to fight both solo and team battles, and you'll spend a lot of the game recruiting and training up various knuckleheads to fight by your side.

I never tire of these games. This is the second of three they are releasing in quick succession (Ishin, this and the forthcoming Infinite Wealth) and they are always superb. The Kiryu saga is probably the longest narrative in gaming - we've followed this lunk and his various friends through nearly a dozen games now - and somehow the quality never dips, not even a little bit. This, although quite slight by the standards of the series, is still superb, and while I would never recommend anyone actually start with this one, it's perfect for series regulars.

What even is the Yakuza series at this point?

Longer than Trails/Kingdom Hearts?

Moving from Want to Play, I started Cyberpunk 2077 over lunch. Far too early to have much of an opinion on it, though I will say that the gunplay is very satisfying (my accidental grenade-throwing notwithstanding; it could really do with a "cancel throw" button), and the nudity feels every bit as juvenile and embarrassing as I thought it would when I saw the first gameplay footage before its original release.

It's certainly showing up Far Cry 6 mechanically, which hit GamePass recently and has been fairly frustrating.

I kinda wish it wasn't so sweary, though. I'm not a prude on that front - I live in Scotland, for God's sake - but every sentence? Is this what someone thinks is mature writing? Jesus wept. It might not even be so bad if the voice actors didn't take such care to enunciate those words in particular.

Finally ready to add some things for the month…

PLAY

• I've bought a bunch of things I should really spend time with: We Love Katamari, Chants of Sennar, Rogue Legacy 2 and RoboCop: Rogue City are all there, waiting to be played on various platforms.
• I started Bomb Rush Cyberfunk on Xbox but haven't had time to dedicate to it properly.
• By accident, I discovered someone created a new way to hack the PSOne Mini that actually works, so I've been tinkering with the one I have that's been gathering dust. I now have 87 games to play that are all good (because I only grabbed the good games). So that's nice.

WANT

• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown seems to be great, but I'll be fucked if I'm buying a game full price in 2024.
• Time to use the Xbox arcade stick I bought would be nice. It was bought to use with Mortal Kombat 1, but now I also have Killer Instinct, DragonBall FighterZ, Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Tekken 7, Soul Calibur 6 and King Of Fighters…15? on my Xbox as well to play. Not touched any of them, bar half the tutorial in MK. Gah.
• Not to have AI replace me at work, since the entire industry seems to be moving in that direction (especially for creatives). So many layoffs of late for one reason or another. It's hard not to be concerned, no matter how many assurances you get that it won't happen.

BIN

• Crime O'Clock gets dumped because I'm done with it.
• I spent the last few months building up evidence of all the things a colleague does that should get them reprimanded, so I could offload during my monthly one-to-one meeting with my boss. It's now 2024 and I can't be fucked to hang onto such things… life's too short and I don't have the energy. In the bin it goes.
• Someone take my fucking UK flat please, I hate it and the fact it's still a millstone round my neck.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Played to Chapter 11 and then I got my second crash of the game which you couldn't repair by switching it off and then on again. Fucking with an ini file to reset a cache that got corrupted because a button prompt was on screen when a script thought it shouldn't be (a conversation option appearing when you're in your menu, the self-rez button prompt appearing in a fight where you have to die) made me think that it's just not really worth the while.

A fun, neat game wrecked by dogshit porting.

WANT

• Time to use the Xbox arcade stick I bought would be nice. It was bought to use with Mortal Kombat 1, but now I also have Killer Instinct, DragonBall FighterZ, Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3, Tekken 7, Soul Calibur 6 and King Of Fighters…15? on my Xbox as well to play. Not touched any of them, bar half the tutorial in MK. Gah.

This made me feel a lot better about my tendency to buy lots of beat 'em ups and not play them very much, so thanks for that.

(I've been much better lately, managed to ignore SFVI and MK1, but I am tempted by Tekken 8…)

I will absolutely get Tekken 8, but not until it's incredibly discounted… I paid €6 for the definitive edition of Tekken 7.

Also, I forgot: Street Fighter 6 should also be on that list of games on my Xbox. Damn.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Played to Chapter 11 and then I got my second crash of the game which you couldn't repair by switching it off and then on again. Fucking with an ini file to reset a cache that got corrupted because a button prompt was on screen when a script thought it shouldn't be (a conversation option appearing when you're in your menu, the self-rez button prompt appearing in a fight where you have to die) made me think that it's just not really worth the while.

A fun, neat game wrecked by dogshit porting.

Would you say it was brilliant

Would you say it was brilliant

"A fun, neat game wrecked by dogshit porting."

I put an 8 word summary of what I'd say about it right at the bottom, especially for you :[

I heard it was brilliant

I haven't read all of the thread but I think it was Luscan who said it was brilliant.

Don't put words in his mouth

I haven't read all of the thread but I think it was Luscan who said it was brilliant.

Yes, I think you're correct. I agree with Luscan. It's a bold claim, but I think he's right.

I haven't read all of the thread but I think it was Luscan who said it was brilliant.

That does sound like something I'd say.

Anyway, getting back to using this thread for it's intended purpose rather than cav and I weakly attempting to troll each other, I've played a couple of games recently.

Play
I finished Death Stranding and my goodness the ending is quite the thing. No story spoilers, because frankly you would have no idea what I was talking about if I tried to explain the specifics. I'd sound like I was describing some weird dream I had, or that I had gone completely mad. It's quite a weird story, and the most Kojima game that has ever existed. Take all the oddness from the MGS series, amplify it, take away the action video game grounding, and insert it into a game about being a UPS delivery guy in the Scottish highlands.

So I reached the end, and managed to do the thing to finish the game, and the game ended. And then it just kept on ending. Just when you thought it had finished ending, it went and ended a bit more. Several times. You know how the Return Of The King movie had several endings? Death Stranding had more, and the collection of endings it has went on longer than the entirity of RotK.

For all it's strangeness, ilweran and I guessed or worked out every one of it's revelations before they happened, including the one about the pizzas. It's a great game to have Theories about, but not worth really examining Kojima's thesis about extinction because that's clearly nonsensical and ends up saying nothing. The all-star cast creates some funny moments as it occurs to you that you are watching acclaimed director Guillermo del Toro rambling on earnestly about a baby in a jar that can detect ghosts.

I think Death Stranding is a genuinely important game. Not even because it's a masterpiece or anything, but because it is such a singular vision, and such a strange entity. It's the very definition of the phrase "it's not for everyone, but…" It's a big-budget cult game, both AAA and a deeply personal statement. We don't really get games like this these days, as everything congeals and homogenizes into big-budget sameyness and risk avoidence. It's a 50-hour epic with an all-star cast and the sensibility of an indie game. Cav's going to tell me it's shit.

After that, I went for something a bit lighter. What Remains of Edith Finch. It wasn't lighter. WRoEF is an innovative take on a walking simulator and tells the story of a family curse by letting you see the deaths of each member of the family through their own eyes. It's very beautiful and rather bleak. It's a bit of a classic, and an example of how games can be used as interactive story-telling devices. I'm not sure what it was saying though - it's better to live a full, brief life than a dull long one? I dunno about that, especially when it's the message of a game where a lot of children die in completely avoidable ways. The message I took from it is that DIY enthusiasts should not be trusted.

For the ultimate in indie sensibility, I played through Exit 8. This is a tiny little game, made by one person, about being trapped in a small section of a Japanese subway. You walk down a corridor, turn a couple of corners, and you're back in the same corridor. A sign on the wall explains that in order to escape, you must find anomalies, things that are different or wrong. Some are obvious, many much less so. It's part of the micro-trend of liminal horror games. You are trapped in a familiar but unsettling space and it feels like you will be there forever. It doesn't deal in jump scares, more a creeping sense of unease. It potentially takes less than half an hour to play through, or you might be trapped there forever. Or you could look up a guide to all the anomalies, but don't do that. It's less than a fiver on steam, and well worth it.

I haven't read all of the thread but I think it was Luscan who said it was brilliant.

Yes, I think you're correct. I agree with Luscan. It's a bold claim, but I think he's right.

I'm on board with this thinking, having grabbed it for free during the Epic Christmas event and then not touching it. I looked at a picture of the game's title screen just the other day and it's pretty fucking spectacular.

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Horizon: Forbidden West. I've warmed to this slightly, after fiddling with the (brilliant and comprehensive) settings menu. Fewer unavoidable stuns, more health, navigation that holds your hand, and a loot system that's basically cheating (you can set it so that machines drop everything when they die, so you don't have to faff with aiming at tiny bits of their armour). All of them are 'accessibility' settings designed to solve issues that should never have existed. But once they're in place, the game does become markedly more enjoyable.

FF7 Remake: Yuffie. (I think that's her name?) I never played this DLC, and just spotted it on PS Plus, so I'm back in Midgar in preparation for Rebirth. The combat in the remake remains my favourite JRPG battle system. I hope FF17 goes down this route rather than 16's God of War wotsit. As much as I enjoyed that.

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A handheld PC. You're all making me want one, with your shiny Steam Decks and ROG thingys. I keep telling myself I'll wait for the next generation, when smaller chipsets get a bit more battery friendly. But with tech, if you start waiting for 'the next one', you tend to never stop…

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FF16. Really enjoyed that. I can totally understand why hardcore JRPG fans hated it, but for me it told a (mostly) coherent story, and the combat was always enjoyable. It strayed into the usual JRPG bollocks towards the very end

Spoiler - click to showWhy do ALL bosses in Japanese games have multiple phases, during which they become some sort of alien space god with a hard-on for geometric patterns?

One big misstep with the story was labelling Jill/Torgal/Joshua's final quests as side quests. I stopped doing those about ten hours in, after I got bored of collecting bear anuses. But then a quick google after I'd finished the game highlighted 3 fairly important, plot-sensitive quests for your companions. The ending would certainly have hit harder if they'd been made part of the main quest.

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I finished Death Stranding and my goodness the ending is quite the thing.

Then. Now. Forever.

There's an 'infamous' bit where you unlock the final story quest in FF16 and then the game shits out like 16 sidequests at once at you, absolutely crushed me into dust because like FF7R they're not the greatest sidequests in the world.

Cav's going to tell me it's shit.

It has a baby in a jar that detects ghosts. There is not a world where I would ever label a game such a thing.

I really like DS. I think it has one of the strongest and most original opening couple of hours of any recent game. I was less enamoured when it became bogged down in the mechanics in the midsection, but the images it seared on my brain will never fade.

Oh, it was Death Stranding Luscan said was brilliant. Easy mistake.

Seriously though, it sounds like the sort of thing I enjoy.