PWB May 2023

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Star Wars Jedi: Survivor - continuing the grand tradition this gen of AAA jank, this has released in a bit of a sorry state. The PC version is apparently a mess and even the console versions have significant performance issues. On Series X you have a choice between Quality mode (30fps with frequent dips) and Performance mode (a very wobbly 40-60fps that's tolerable with a VRR display and mostly unplayable without). Patches are apparently incoming.

All that is a real shame because from what I've seen of the game so far, it's superb. I liked Fallen Order but this really kicks things up a notch in every department. It looks and sounds incredible and nails the Star Wars atmosphere effortlessly. If they can sort out the performance just a little, I'll be very happy to sink a load of time into this.

Persona 5 Royale - a very, very long game that somehow doesn't feel like one. I've been playing this for ages now and I don't think I'm really anywhere near the end yet, but the story is so good and the characters so well-depicted that I don't mind at all.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI - not my favourite Civ game but it's the only one with a console version so what can you do? There are actually loads of good ideas here (the city districts in particular are a fantastic addition to the game) but it's let down a bit by an incredibly busy map that simply makes it hard to work out where everything is. (On a TV, with a controller, it's slightly harder than it is on a PC, with a mouse, but they've done a decent enough job). In my game the Inca declared war on me and I simply coudn't find them. They'll show up eventually, I'm sure.

Want

Hmmm. I'm not sure what the rest of 2023 looks like. I'm not particularly interested in Tears of the Kingdom, I don't know much about Redfall, Starfield has "wait a year for patches" written all over it, Final Fantasy XVI is exclusive to a console I don't own, Diablo IV looks a lot like the last one, Assassin's Creed Mirage I don't think has a date yet… I genuinely don't know. What are YOU all looking forward to?

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The Coronation and everything associated with it. I can't believe Britain's weirdest family wants to blow another couple of hundred million quid of public money on yet another vanity parade. Oh, yes, wait I can.

The German postal service. This is a bit niche but I posted something to Mart and then six weeks later it got returned to me for reasons I can't fathom, though it looks like it made it to Germany and back. I hope it enjoyed its holiday.

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I stumbled on a decent PS5 deal (GoW Ragnarok and a Pulse headset for £550), and after a couple of days um-ing and ah-ing, clicked Buy; so that should be arriving in the next couple of days.

What I'll be getting into initially will probably mostly be PS4 games I've not quite finished - God of War, mainly - except this time, they'll be audible! I booted up Horizon Zero Dawn and Spider-man to check out how the new sound bar handled games, and couldn't actually hear them over the PS4 fan…

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My replacement TV to arrive. Samsung support confirmed that the defective one has arrived back at the warehouse, but it'll be 7-10 working days before I get the new one. Just my luck to get a busted TV right before two bank holiday weekends. Down with the King.

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I'm with Gar - the coronation is a baffling embarrassment. I always thought was kind of neutral on the monarchy, but the Homage of the People is legitimately one of the most disgusting things I think I've ever heard of, especially as polls increasingly show that support for the monarchy is shriveling like {TRAITOROUS ANALOGY HERE}. I suppose that my increasing distaste for religion isn't helping; every time my daughter comes home from school repeating a bible story in the same tone as actual history, I find it harder not to just tell her it's all bollocks.

Persona 5 Royale - a very, very long game that somehow doesn't feel like one. I've been playing this for ages now and I don't think I'm really anywhere near the end yet, but the story is so good and the characters so well-depicted that I don't mind at all.

Do you mind if I ask where your at in the game? I just finished it and Ive got some mixed feelings on it. A lot of great things about the game but all the negatives are because of the length of it. It's weird because at one point in the game I was thinking it's one of the best JRPGs I've played, if not the best. After 120 hours it took to complete the game it shot way down. I'll post a more detailed post in the completed thread when I get home.

Yeah, I'm in the "P5 is way too fuckin long" camp as well, though maybe Royal has addressed some of the bigger frustrations (I'm pretty sure Morgana is less draconian about going out at night?).

Do you mind if I ask where your at in the game?

I'm in late October, the section just past the fifth palace:

Spoiler - click to showI've defeated the spaceport boss, Haru has joined the team, and Akechi has just revealed to the Phantom Thieves that he knows who they are.

Thus far it hasn't outstayed its welcome, at all, though I've been playing it fairly leisurely over a period of several weeks. I've been quite diligent about raising the specific Confidant levels that will allow me to access the extra Royal content at the end of the game:

Spoiler - click to showAkechi, Yoshizawa and Maruki, right? I think I've maxed all of those out as far as the game will let me at this point.

It's good. I like the pacing, I like the way it's quite episodic so it has natural points where you can put it down for a few days and then come back to it. It's good to break up the story sections with a trip into Mementos every now and again. It has a few problematic points but nothing in it has been as offensive as P4G's gratuitous homophobia. I can definitely see myself making it to the end of this one, and enjoying it all the way.

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Redfall

This looks like a complete mess going by the reviews. Think it's sitting around 65 on metacritic. First AAA xbox first party in 15 months…. 😔

It does look DOA, unfortunately. Average, not terrible, I'd say, but as a co-op game that's the kiss of death. Companies keep churning out these co-op titles and they keep sinking without trace - Back 4 Blood, Marvel's Avengers and now this. You need a real buzz around them at launch to get everyone desperate to jump in and this definitely doesn't have that.

To be honest I think the news about it running at 30fps killed it stone dead a few weeks ago. People have come to expect better, and there's some surprisingly rough stuff being released lately. What with this and Jedi Survivor's technical issues that I alluded to in the first post of this thread, I wonder if we are finally starting to see the impact of Covid on (Western) game development.

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Lord of the Rings Online. Pretty much exclusively, to be honest.

Want
The new Zelda, even though I'm oddly unexcited for it, considering it's a direct sequel to one of the best games of all time.

FF6 pixel remaster thingy. I never played it first time around, and I hear people love it, so going to give that a go once my LOTRO fixation cools.

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The Xbox. I don't think I've ever seen a more moribund two years for a brand-new console. Microsoft have spent all the money in the world and achieved essentially nothing. It's not literally going in the bin; I'll keep it for online sessions with friends. But my Game Pass lapsed about two months ago and it's been a blu-ray player since then. I think we've turned it on twice.

I'll be fascinated by their next (very open and honest) YouTube documentary in 10 years where they admit they fucked up the Series X, but next time they'll actually release some games, promise.

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The Xbox. I don't think I've ever seen a more moribund two years for a brand-new console. Microsoft have spent all the money in the world and achieved essentially nothing. It's not literally going in the bin; I'll keep it for online sessions with friends. But my Game Pass lapsed about two months ago and it's been a blu-ray player since then. I think we've turned it on twice.

Harsh, I think, though I can see where you're coming from.

Yes the AAA exclusives have been, ahem, a bit thin on the ground. But the Xbox still plays all the third-party games, has a number of smaller-scale exclusives of its own, and has a lot of technical features that the PS5 lacks - Dolby Vision, Dolby Atmos, better VRR, cloud gaming support, better backwards compatibility etc. Game Pass (which I get completely for free via Microsoft Rewards) continues to provide me with the vast majority of the games I play, and I've discovered loads of stuff through it that I'd otherwise have completely missed out on.

Also, unlike the PS5, it doesn't look like a Stormtrooper's overstuffed rucksack. This is important, I feel, especially if you don't have sole control over your living room's aesthetics.

To me, it still feels like the only advantage the PS5 really offers is access to half a dozen or so Sony exclusives. Good games, for sure, but not a game-changer for me. (Genuinely I think I'd rather play Pentiment than Horizon Forbidden West, for instance). Appreciate others feel different.

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God help me, I'm playing Honkai: Star Rail for my sins. I haven't generally been one for gacha games, though Priconne ate up a lot of my phone battery not too long ago. I bounced of Genshin Impact (the action-RPG combat didn't gel with me, and the BotW traversal just looked ridiculous when you're piloting a frill-laden jpop idol in heels), but this is turn-based and has more sci-fi trappings, and I'm honestly kind of enjoying it.

That said I'm still very early on, so the worst of the gacha bullshit hasn't reared its head yet. I've started to get a glimpse of the ludicrously complicated web of upgrade paths, but I've still got some features to unlock.

The story is bobbins, controls on mobile are fiddly (meanwhile, the keybindings on PC are psychotic) and the character designs are doing that gacha/vtuber thing where every outfit is so festooned with belts and loops that they're basically indistinguishable (what I wouldn't give for a recognisable silhouette!), but the combat is snappy and surprisingly strategic.

Also on mobile, I've got a pretty regular schedule of running through some Marvel Snap matches every day, and I'm giving the daily challenge map in Isle of Arrows at least one go.

And I'm continuing to plug away at the post-game missions in 13 Sentinels. Progress has slowed, but I'm running a couple a day and getting a few upgrades in. Natsuno's upgraded Precision Machine Cannons are ridiculous.

Want

Now that payday's arrived, I might finally pull the trigger on Advance Wars.

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Monarchy, capitalism, the usual.

My Xbox is a Sea of Thieves and 'Twitch on the TV' box. That's basically it. So it'll be staying under my telly (and, by virtue, I need to keep Game Pass), but that's the only reason. I literally don't use it for anything else.

Our Xbox is currently a Minecraft and No Man's Sky box for the kid, though Minx has started up The Outer Worlds, after recently rinsing (geddit) Powerwash Simulator. I do intend to get back to Hitman and P4G some day, too.

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Years ago Mart told me be that I should stick with Mario 3D Land after the “end” because the post-game special levels are great. At least I think it was Mart. Whoever it was, he was right! I’m now up to 271 big coins and only two more levels to go!

I have also been playing Link Between Worlds, which is great and the 2d gimmick bring a nice twist to things.

Portal 2 - Revisiting this for the first time in ten years. It’s still wonderful.

Want
I’d like to get stuck into something on my Xbox. Maybe finish Star Wars: Jedi Outcast or Mass Effect.

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Years ago Mart told me be that I should stick with Mario 3D Land after the “end” because the post-game special levels are great. At least I think it was Mart. Whoever it was, he was right! I’m now up to 271 big coins and only two more levels to go!

If it was right, then it was definitely me.

Redfall

…a complete mess […] 65 on metacritic.

Is 65 really that bad..?

For me a 6/10 is decent and can be enjoyable. I still enjoy a few average 5/10 games. I think reviews today are way too nice. Where a 7/10 is seen as average now. So when you see that yellow metacritic score it's kinda surprising. As for Redfall it's just disappointing to see a AAA game that's been delayed a year to still come out this underwhelming and have so many issues.

Edit: Thinking about it, Xbox last AAA first party exclusive was delayed a year and that was underwhelming too (17 months ago…). Microsoft is in a place where they need to absolutely kill it now. The Starfield showcase, the "E3" showcase and of course the second half of the year with games. One of the positives for me is Tango Gameworks rising up as a top studio. I love the Evil Within series, Ghostwire Tokyo was really fun but more importantly Hi-Fi Rush was incredible. Still my GOTY so far. Can't wait to see what they do next.

Redfall: I've only played the first half a level or so, but the controls are already kind of irritating. The deadzone on the stick seems massive, and once it does start moving, it's far too twitchy. I'm going to stick with it until I unlock some powers, though, at least.

Your not wrong. The controls feel awful. Played about 2 hours and I've uninstalled it. This game needs a lot more then bug fixes. The whole game feels rushed and low budget. Also, pictures to tell the story feels a bit cheap for a £70 game if I'm honest.

Eh, inFamous had "graphic novel" cutscenes; I didn't mind it then, and I don't mind now. The problems that Redfall has clearly go beyond how the story beats are presented. If the game was awesome, I don't think many people would be complaining.

Wasn't it both? It's been so long since I played them games but I'm sure they only used graphic novel to explain backstory or use them for the good and evil choices. I could be wrong on that to be honest. I like graphic novel story telling myself, but infamous wasn't £70 and came out on the PS3 13 years ago. I think by the third infamous game around the PS4 release, the graphic novel cutscenes were gone. I think I'm probably being too picky, but the lastest trailers are kinda misleading to me. They all high quality and well animated explaining the characters story.

I've only just realised this is Arkane Austin (ie not the guys who made Dishonored and Deathloop), which explains the quality drop somewhat. I'm surprised more review outlets didn't mention this, everyone just seems surprised that a great developer dropped the ball. Redfall is definitely tarnishing the rep of a great developer.

Although Austin's only other game was Prey which, by all accounts, was great.

Spider-man Remastered released on PS5 as a standalone thing yesterday. It's only a £5 upgrade if you have the PS4 version, and includes the DLC - which is currently on sale for £8.

So, yes, I bought that.

I know I'm a year late to the party, but Jesus Christ, this thing loads fast, doesn't it? As threatened, I started off with PS4 stuff, which I'm running off a probably-too-small external SSD; so it's loading faster than the PS4 did, but it's still loading. Spider-man just… starts.

Jedi: Survivor is really good. You kind of need to play it in the 30fps quality mode, which takes a bit of adjusting to, but once you do it's actually really solid and the graphics are insanely good in places. It's easily the most next-gen looking game I've played. The planets are enormous, there's a great balance between story stuff and side quests, it fixes all the problems that its predecessor had (no more backtracking!) and there's a jawdropping set piece halfway through which is better than anything Naughty Dog have ever done. It's an absolutely superb game and I hope people don't let the (rather overblown) chatter about its technical issues overshadow it.

It's definitely on my list, but I've still got such a backlog (including Fallen Order) that I'll definitely be able to wait for a sale. I do like a good Star War, though.

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I finally battled through getting enough coins to unlock the final level of Mario 3D Land and after a few attempts finished that level. I don't know what I was expecting but I got nothing for the effort. Still, it's done. Might play some more Zelda 3ds next.

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I finally battled through getting enough coins to unlock the final level of Mario 3D Land and after a few attempts finished that level. I don't know what I was expecting but I got nothing for the effort. Still, it's done. Might play some more Zelda 3ds next.

I went back to Wind Waker HD the other day and finally, for the first time ever, finished the Nintendo Gallery (the photo statue quest that takes the entire game to complete). The reward? Nothing. The statue maker doesn't even acknowledge that you're done. What a bastard.

Play: Found a disc of Doom Eternal that I've had for ages. PS+ expired so I've been digging into stuff that's been hanging around found Doom 2, Elden Ring and Prey behind a bunch of books.
I played a fair bit of it in a lockdown I think… Mainly because I remember the kids screaming when the launch screen appeared on the tv when they were looking for Bluey.
I quite like it but struggling to recapture the magic of Doom 2016. I don't know if this one is less of a surprise or something else. Certainly the feel for me is that there are less of the set arenas that Doom had and these are siloed off into the challenges you need to find keys to unlock. The loop doesn't feel as fun and… Maybe I'm wrong but is there more platforming in this one? I can't tell any more if I've got a shit attention span or it's just diminishing returns so I need to look for things I'd not normally be interested in.
Speaking of which, I had A Short Hike hanging about thinking it might be one the kids would like and I poked about in it for most of a night having a really lovely time.
This weekend we had pals visiting and their eldest is a big Sonic fan largely based on his exposure because his dad still has a Megadrive kicking about and that's the only game he has left. In the car home we talked a lot about Sonic and I was surprised about the number of cheat codes burned into my brain! Anyway, this kicked off a weekend of Sonic Mania and a lot of Sonic geekery being rejuvenated. Asked if I'd completed it I had to admit that no, I'd never got very far. A 7 year old trying to comprehend why you would have access to this thing and not rinse it really brought the crushing reality of adulthood into focus for me. LOL etc. Anyway, I'm back on that now. It's a lovely thing. I love it.

Want: I have no idea what's coming or what I might want to play.

Bin: Fucking hell… As above we were in Coronation hell. The kids at school are having a picnic in celebration. The nursery are involved and created a Union Jack invitation. It's pretty much a rerun of the Jubilee, the forelocks tugging was all A Bit Much.

Want: I have no idea what's coming or what I might want to play.

I'm in much the same boat, but Spider-Man 2 will hopefully be good, and I want to see more of Wolverine, too. I'm also probably one of the few people looking forward to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

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Chorus

I'm not a fan of flying games if I'm honest, but this game is epic. I've never heard of this game until now. The controls for your space ship are so responsive. Flying in-between rails and stuff is flawless. Some of the battles looks so cinematic but it's all gameplay. Around 6 hours in, so we'll see how it holds up. Great game pass title to try.

Want

Street Fighter 6 open beta

Just a heads up if anyone is interested. The open beta is this Friday for everyone on PS5, Xbox series and PC. Looking forward to jumping back into this one last time before it's released.

I got Zelda, but I still want to finish BotW first (12 shrines to go). It can wait.

Tempted by SF6 but really, I know how this goes:

• I get excited about a new fighting game
• I get the new fighting game
• I play the new fighting game for about ten minutes
• I go do something else and never go back

The only fighter I've put hours into for ages is Mortal Kombat 11, which I loved. Yeah, I heard the rumours. Give it to me (and don't leave out Mileena, you fucks).

(and don't leave out Mileena, you fucks).

Preach Brother! ✊

Another Play:
Horizon Forbidden West - only about an hour or so in (just got the title card), but holy hell this is a nice-looking game. I'd just finished off the last lingering side quest in Frozen Wilds immediately before starting this, so it's a very direct comparison, but Zero Dawn is already an impressive sight running on PS5 - I wasn't expecting such an obvious difference.

WANT

https://twitter.com/MortalKombat/status/1659182088954986496

I'll take that, please and thank you.

I'm not a fighting game guy anyway, really, but… ugh. Nope. They know their audience, though, I'll give them that.

Oh yeah, that trailer is grotesque. I hate horror and I hate blood, but somehow I'm numb to Mortal Kombat. Only Mortal Kombat, not other things (I can't cope with Dead Space, that awful copycat one that I forget the name of… Calisto Experiment?, etc etc). Weird.

Somehow I keep forgetting to put Stray Gods on my Want list. If anyone's missed this one, it's a musical RPG written by David Gaider with music by Austin Wintory. They did a live show a couple of weeks back where they showed a little bit of how variants of the songs can play out. It's very impressive, both from a technical and an artistic perspective.

The one downside(?) is that it's currently slated as PC-only; it seems like something much better suited to playing on a sofa.

I'd not heard of that before but it looks superb. I can't imagine it not coming to console at some point.

Fingers crossed, for sure.

Has anyone ever played the co-op missions in Assassin's Creed Unity? I know it did stumble badly at launch from being buggy as fuck, but my trophy-hunter brother-in-law has decided he's going to platinum all the Assassin's Creeds, and recruited me to help. After solving some baffling online issues (it won't connect if I link my Ubisoft account), we've played it a couple of times, and it's… actually pretty good?

The missions are all bespoke, which means they're solidly-designed enough but don't encourage a lot of replay ability, even with a pool of randomly-unlocked rewards. However, with some kind of procedural generation, adding targets and objectives to key locations in the map, something like this could be great.

I played them a little bit back when the game originally came out, and you're right, they are pretty good. Unity's reputation has grown quite a bit since its original release, I think, a few years of bug fixes and the power of the new consoles has done wonders for it. It's a very ambitious game full of good ideas, and the co-op (which only ever appeared in this game) was definitely one of them.

The original Assassin's Creed multiplayer that they had in various iterations from Brotherhood to Black Flag was also really good, ahead of its time in many ways. It is odd how they come up with all this stuff then just ditch it. The latest games have almost no multiplayer functionality in them at all.

Your brother-in-law is a maniac though if he's going to try and Platinum all the AC games. Valhalla alone is an absolute monster, I've put something like 150 hours into that game and I am nowhere near getting all the achievements. I think AC3 (the American one) was also quite ridiculous.

Fortunately, he's started with the PS4-era games, I think - ACIII would be awful. Mind you, I managed to platinum Liberation on the Vita, which had an atrocious asynchronous "multiplayer" mode; that was one of the worst grinds of my goddamn life.

I don't know if he'll manage Origins, Odyssey, or Valhalla - I guess we'll see. At least I won't be roped into them!

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I just finished all 120 shrines in Breath of the Wild, and now I'm farming pieces of dragons to upgrade the armour you get as a reward with. All because I want to fight Calamity Ganon while actually dressed as proper Link. This game, FFS.

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Just over an hour or so into Planet of Lana and really enjoying it. It's very similar to the type of games like Limbo and Inside. Although it definitely hasn't gripped me as much as they did. Not as dark or gritty but makes it up with some lovely visuals and art style. I'll continue tomorrow for sure.

Getting some serious withdrawals now the beta for Street Fighter 6 has ended. In the last beta I was getting used to the new drive system mechanics. This time I got to learn combos and setups for the characters and test them out in ranked. It feels like it's got so much more depth than SFV, but that's not the most important thing for me. As long as it feels like a different Street Fighter game with whatever new mechanic they go with like the focus, parry or the V system, I'm happy. It's living up to the hype in every way possible. Not long before it releases. Let's go! ✊

Want

Street Fighter 6, Mortal Kombat 1 and Tekken 8. What a great time for fighting games with all 3 coming out in the same year.

A new indie Doom shooter game Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun is looking sweet as hell. Trying to resist spending my Microsoft points on it. 😅

I'm also about an hour into Planet of Limbo, sorry Lana, and it's very generic so far. It's pretty but slightly dull. There have been a lot of bits where you're just running left or right for a few screens watching the scenery scroll past. I'm hoping it picks up a bit as so far I don't see why it's received so much praise.

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Tried the opening of Forza Horizon 5 today, since there's a 500pt reward thing for getting one achievement in a selection of games (which seems to be broken). Can't decide if I like it or not. It's very, very pretty, no doubt, but I'm not sure where it lands between realistic racing (which I hate) and something like Burnout or the Criterion Need for Speed games (which I like). Dunno if I'll continue.

What I will say, however, is that I played it on my Series X through cloud gaming, not by installing it. Flawless, which is nice. I think I'll keep going down this route for something I'm not sure about (where it's offered, of course).

WANT
The new AEW wrestling game finally has a release date and it's the end of June! Gimme that sweet, sweet No Mercy gameplay. I suspect it's going to be janky as hell, but I don't care.

What I will say, however, is that I played it on my Series X through cloud gaming, not by installing it. Flawless, which is nice.

I think you've been lucky there, I find XCloud to be a very variable experience. I've had times when it's been flawless and times when it's been unplayable. Maybe the German data centres are better than the London ones!

Tried the opening of Forza Horizon 5 today […] Can't decide if I like it or not.

I like the driving in Horizon, but the whole tirade of execrable festival-character bullshit can get in the sea.

WANT
The new AEW wrestling game finally has a release date and it's the end of June! Gimme that sweet, sweet No Mercy gameplay. I suspect it's going to be janky as hell, but I don't care.

Yeah, Im looking forward to it too. I keep telling my friends to not expect the level of budget of the WWE games. This definitely looks more of a "AA" title which isn't a bad thing. I think the biggest strength this has over the WWE games is the fun factor. If they go down the video game root rather than simulation style and it should be good. Got my fingers crossed for that game pass deal.

Bin - Planet of Lana

Very much not for me. Long periods of holding down right on the control stick interspersed by difficult crate puzzles with a single solution. It's the kind of game that leaves you feeling stupid, repeatedly, and you're pretty much permanently stuck. Also you have to micro-manage an idiot cat thing and for some reason when it dies, so do you (I was fine before it showed up, what even is this bullshit?) Glad some people are enjoying it but I won't be going back.

I was vaguely aware there was a new Lord of the Rings-related game coming out but now it's here I am fairly sure that reading the Guardian's review will be far more entertaining than actually playing the thing. From the strapline down, this is an absolute kicking:

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/may/25/the-lord-of-the-rings-gollum-daedalic-entertainment-nacon-video-game-review

That was (I think) the very first 'next gen' game revealed, about three years ago. And at every showing since it's looked crap.

And yeah that's a sensational headline.