PWB May 2025

Another month and off we go.

Play

Avowed. This is a game that does almost everything right - it looks fantastic, has decent world-building, great combat, interesting upgrade paths and entertaining characters - yet it's relentlessly, almost aggressively 7/10 and I'm not sure why. I think it's the pacing - it's quite a plodding game, really, despite everyone constantly screaming at you about the Dreamscourge, and every area plays out in exactly the same way as you methodically work your way through side quests to upgrade your equipment before you tackle whatever the story has in store. It also goes on far too long, I've just started the fourth area and it really should have ended by now. I like it - on a mechanical level at least, it's lots of fun to play - but it's hard to imagine people getting really excited by it and I'm kind of ready for it to be done.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - I'm at least ten years late to the party on this one but it's really great, a point-and-click adventure from the minds behind Phoenix Wright that must have been absolutely astonishing on the DS and still looks pretty impressive to this day. It's funny, puzzly and has some of the best animation I've ever seen in anything. Lovely stuff.

Want

I'm increasingly keen to finish Avowed so I can get stuck into Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 before everyone moves onto the next exciting thing. Game Pass really has been nuts lately, I've barely been able to touch half the stuff I want to play; maybe it's just too many huge RPGs coming out all at the same time.

I'd still like to get Assassin's Creed: Shadows - I'm guessing no-one here has bought it? It's an Ubisoft game so it should begin plummeting in price right… about… now.

Bin

Game prices, console prices, subscription prices - everyone seems determined to price us out of everything right now. I don't see how it's sustainable. When even us middle-aged, middle-class nerds are starting to look at £700 consoles and £80 games with raised eyebrows, you do wonder how on earth younger people are going to pick up the gaming habit. Shit cellphone games, probably.

And oh god the state of the world right now. The apricot hellbeast they somehow put in charge of the USA is still on his demented rampage and as I write we're about five hours out from the result of local elections which will probably mean Farage's smug froggy features all over the press for weeks and weeks. I used to think we were making some progress in the world - I don't think that any more.

Play

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is great, but I'm starting to worry a little about how big it is. The story, characters and world are fascinating, though, so I'm definitely gonna see the story through even if I can't get through all the side stuff (much of which, I'm convinced, I've not even found yet).

Want

Switch 2 is the obvious one, at least in part so the kid will stop asking how many days 'til it's out. He apparently had a nightmare last night that it was delayed to next year.

Bin

Dealer's fuckin' choice.

Play
Mass Effect - Still great. I'm 5-10 hours into ME3 and I'm loving how bleak it is. Proper end of days stuff. I'm looking forward to finally playing the Citadel dlc.

Citizen Sleeper - This is really good. I wasn't expecting a gamebook.

Want
Expedition 33 sounds great.

I wont say how long it's taken me to get to the last boss unless you want me to but, it's not Persona 5 length for sure.

Citizen Sleeper - This is really good. I wasn't expecting a gamebook.

Citizen Sleeper is great. I loved it to bits, eventually – when I first tried it, the oppressive, creeping anxiety was a bit much for me to handle.

Not totally sure how I feel about the sequel; it's slicker in a lot of ways, but the structure of the story has you moving around a lot more. You don't get to know the locations as well as you do The Eye, and that detachment harms its impact a little.

Avowed
It also goes on far too long, I've just started the fourth area and it really should have ended by now.

Yeah definitely agree with this. It's mad that everyone was moaning about how short it is. As much as I loved it, I didn't get around to the ending before Oblivion, so it's on the (huge) pile of unfinished games.

I don't really have a problem leaving games unfinished, though. In 99% of games the narrative is nonsense designed to keep you playing, so it's not like abandoning a good book before the end. I've loved my time with Avowed, but I couldn't care less what the Dreamscourge is.

Want
I'd still like to get Assassin's Creed: Shadows - I'm guessing no-one here has bought it? It's an Ubisoft game so it should begin plummeting in price right… about… now.

I have £35 sat on a CEX voucher. By the time it's dropped in price I'll hopefully have some free time, although you're right about Game Pass atm. It's been solid bangers for months.

Bin
as I write we're about five hours out from the result of local elections which will probably mean Farage's smug froggy features all over the press for weeks and weeks.

6 votes. 🫠

Play
Oblivion, at the expense of everything else. Everyone has that one all-consuming game that they'll happily replay again and again. Oblivion is mine, and now it has horse shadows and realistic carrots.

Want
Switch 2.

Oblivion to break its spell on me, so I can finally get round to playing Expedition 33, Lord of the Rings Online, the 'new' Myst world they just patched in, Avowed, Pillars of Eternity, Thronebreaker, Metaphor, Black Mesa, God of War Ragnarok, Dragon's Dogma 2, and Star Wars Outlaws. That's my currently playing list, not my 'need to start' list. Mad times.

Play

Final Fantasy VII (PS1) - I'm at Cosmo Canyon and everyone who said it was always obvious Red XIII changed his voice from wise old man to a young teen like he does in Rebirth is full of absolute shit.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - The postgame is really chill, but the balance has absolutely fallen off a cliff. This isn't game ruining or anything but if I wanted to I could one shot everything and bypass the great combat system which is a shame as some of these superbosses are so FUN.

Oblivion - I dunno' if I'm going back soon, I was enthralled all over again when I jumped in on release but when I got out for Clair Obscur I feel like I'd rather just play new games, I dunno. We'll see if I dip in and out, no rush I guess.

Xenoblade X - man, after really evangelizing this for years I have to say I really wanna' be done with this now, it's a great game when you are interacting with the world, doing segment recon and finding probes and stuff but any time you do sidequests it becomes pretty insufferable, some and I mean a fraction of them are cool and the rest of them are straight up 'skip cutscene' tier. Next time I'm on the Switch I'll show you how insane my map screen looks for quest icons, it's so depressing.

The world of X is actually amazing and it will always be a highlight of the series to explore it for the first time and get your own mech and finally fly but that doesn't make it the best game in the series like people like to act by a long shot. I think 2 and 3 at least are better, maybe not in world design but they still have their moments in that regard and they're not aslog in the other parts

Want - I want to get round to Lunar Remastered Collectionsoon, simple RPGs that I can't really explain what makes them good, I think its in the same way that you'd like Dragon Quest but in some ways there's even more of a classic adventure quality to them. Reminder it has the best PS1 FMV

Bin - I think Clair Obscur broke the RB button on my Xbox pad lmao

Bin - My Series S controller, apparently I parried too hard in Clair Obscur because it's the only button that stopped working. I can't exactly ignore it because the Xbox decided it was going to be valuable recently so I'll be using it for a bit more.

Not gonna' lie I kinda' wanna' play Gears of War on the PS5 just to say 'I played Gears of War on a PS5'. (Also it's still a good game, very much enjoyed playing it in co-op with Boss Man a few years ago)

It is Gears of War Remastered Remastered though which is kind of becoming a trend. A decent game, but like the re-release of Metroid Prime, should have been a remaster of the whole trilogy.

That's the 1000/1000 done for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 done! Very chill process, however getting all journals and music records was pretty boring and the constant back and forth really started to get to me. That said, I don't consider that an integral part of the post game, which remains fun to do to the end even if it is pretty much a victory lap IMO.

Think I might start Lost Odyssey again, Clair Obscur nottaking a million hours to beat has me fiending for more sadlad and sadlass RPGs, that and it's also a great game!

I just bought Lost Odyssey in the recent sale. I never did finish it, I'm thinking I'll play it when I finish ME3.

I think that's a pretty good 360 1-2 combo tbh

I've just been let down by both Dragon's Dogma 2 and Oblivion in the space of 5 minutes.

I was cracking through Dragon's Dogma 2, still loving it, when it suddenly went all end-of-the-world JRPG bollocks. No more pretty scenery, just a red hellscape of endless bosses and tough enemies. And it wipes your previous saves (by design), so you can't go back unless you delete your cloud saves and start again.

Deflated, I decided to uninstall and load Oblivion up instead. Aaaaand my Oblivion saves are all corrupted. Which is par for the course as far as Elder Scrolls games are concerned, but still annoying after 30 hours of play time.

So, new Play. Star Wars Outlaws.

There's potential for a hat trick of disappointment with Clair Obscur and you hating having to parry! (not saying you will but s it the most likely issue people will have)

New Want: Death Stranding 2

This is a game I want to know as little about as possible going in so I'm trying to avoid media stuff but the new previews today have me actively excited for a game I was more passively excited for. (I loved Death Stranding a lot but was very much in the 'not sure why it needed a sequel but I'm there I guess')

Crazy late to the thread this month due to a combination of life, work and it being exams and coursework deadlines time of the year, but been back on Vampire Survivors and finally gotten to the stage where it's rare I don't go for the full 30.

Also been dabbling a tiny bit on Counter Strike 2, which I am terrible at as not played a FPS shooter on keyboard and mouse for like 20 years or something.

Play
My 2080ti broke in my PC in Ireland, and rather than buy another second hand card I just decided to get a 5070. Overpriced, over hot and with terrible drivers, what can possibly go wrong. So I've mainly been playing Clair Obscur on the ROG Ally (which is excellent, but holy fuck it needs a map) while I wait for it to turn up.

And that's about it, apart from Valorant and Apex from time to time. Too sunny for gaming really innit.

Want
The new Doom looks good. And I got it "free" with my GPU, so even if I wasn't Gamepassing, it looks like it's going to be in my life. I didn't like Eternal as much as Doom 2016, and I think the more Serious Sam-like cadence looks fun in the new one.

Bin(ish)
As I might've mentioned I've moved to the Republic of Ireland. I thought NI was bonkers, ROI isn't much better. The lack of council tax (?) makes it a strange place where nearly everyone seems to own an immaculate 18 bedroom house set in its own grounds and a top of the range BMW. All the main roads are wide, beautifully maintained super highways funded by the EU, small side roads are 65% potholes. The scenery (in the bit I'm in) is very like Cumbria, with endless bleak forestry land. The beaches are nice. Property out of the Dublin catchment is ridiculously cheap. I could sell my flat in Wales and buy a 14 bedroom mansion overlooking the coast next to a flawless golden beach which only 3 people a year visit. Tempting.

Because waste collection isn't funded out of taxation, fly tipping is everywhere. The people in the bit I'm in are so fucking nosy. Every time I've been out walking at least one car has stopped to enquire who I am and what I'm doing. Admittedly, I'm near the border and perhaps everyone is paranoid, but it is weird. It comes with the "famous" Irish joviality, with a slight hint that they'll bundle me into the car and shoot me if I give the wrong answer.

Nobody understands me, even though I have the most generic flat English accent. Food is ruinously expensive. So much so we drive to ASDA just over the border (the ASDA in question I'm led to believe is the most profitable branch in the whole of the UK). I mean, it's fine. Cheaper than continuing to rent just north of Belfast (I only need to pop into the office from time to time). I am currently in Wales though and enjoying being among people who don't question what I'm doing whenever I leave the house.

Play - Expedition 33 - yes I'm a little late to this one but holy hell, that has to be the most engaging opening couple of hours of any game I've played in YEARS. And you weren't kidding about the music. I've no idea if it'll be able to keep it up but I am absolutely enthralled so far.

Enjoying Doom: the Dark Ages a fair bit, but I think I definitely already feel Eternal is a better game and now I guess I understand how people who loved 2016 felt when they played Eternal and didn't like it.

EDIT - You know what? Fuck that, I've had to force myself to stop playing it and some fight sequences have had me realizing I've been holding my breath the entire time. I'm not sure what did it but getting more weapons definitely helped because now I can see the flow of the game. I think getting the gun that crushes skulls and fires the fragments as bullets and the room after it was a definite 'okay maybe this is going to be great' moment perhaps.

Also minor point but it didn't help that I felt it was too easy on default difficulty (and I'm pretty sure normal mode is 'Ultraviolence' renamed 😮) and putting it up a notch gave me about 10 different modifiers to tweak: enemy aggression, parry timing, ammo amounts… all cool and all but I didn't like the idea of having to tweak some settings when Eternal got it just right. Anyway, I've only really made parrying harder (and for my money it's still more lenient than even Clair Obscur on lowest setting) but while the game definitely feels easier than Eternal you can absolutely get shredded ASAP on Nightmare…. so I'm okay.

Star Wars Outlaws. Am I just old, or thick? I don't understand what's happening in this game at all.

Everyone is shooting at me all the time, I'm not sure why, there are lots of different gangs that all hate me, but I'm also somehow working for all of them. I have to walk through random towns picking up random bits of metal from random tables, but none of this is signposted so I have to just constantly tap circle near every table until I find it. And then when I do find it, I'm not sure what I've even found, or what it upgrades, or whether it was part of a quest. And if anyone spots me at any point, the whole town shoots me.

I have a blaster upgrade that shoots blue electricity at switches to open doors. Except after an hour the button broke. Literally just stopped working, nothing happens when I press triangle/Y. So now I can't open blue electricity doors.

I keep being given arbitrary decisions to make about whether to complete a mission or double cross someone, without any indication what the rewards/consequences will be. I couldn't care less whether I upset the Pykes because I don't know who the Pykes are.

My rodent hasn't worked since the tutorial. I remember it's L1 to make him do things, but that doesn't work in the main game, so I'm just ignoring him.

There are quests, intel, and extra intel. I don't know what any of those mean, but I can't do most of them because the whole game is shooting at me.

I can't fast travel to certain places (including what I assume is my home base, the town with the ship) because it just says fast travel not available. No further explanation.

And everything has a mad Star Wars name.

It's utterly impenetrable.

On a more positive note, Doom Dark Ages is superb, even if I had to knock the speed down to 90 percent.

Okay, I actually am just old.

After breathlessly praising it a few days ago I'm kinda ready for it to be done now, it's a bit longer than I'd have liked and the 'stand and fight' philosophy just isn't as fun as Eternal's hyper movement based combat imo.

Star Wars Outlaws.

Aww, I really liked Outlaws, in a kind of shonky, 7/10 kind of way.

I keep being given arbitrary decisions to make about whether to complete a mission or double cross someone, without any indication what the rewards/consequences will be. I couldn't care less whether I upset the Pykes because I don't know who the Pykes are.

Double-crossing improves your rep with the alternate faction (and usually pays more Credits), but will obviously reduce your standing with the employer for that quest. It's up to you how much you care about your rep, but you will get shot more if you don't increase it a bit.

Your current standing with each of the gangs is listed on the Reputation tab. Each gang is a major player on at least one planet, and you can only go into their territory (marked on the map) if your reputation is high enough - though some areas are restricted even if you're maxed out.

Higher rep also gives you extra stuff at their merchants, and better prices. Which gang(s) you work for and rep up is largely up to you (it won't lock you out of critical path stuff) but there are cosmetics and a couple of other rewards at each level if that's your thing.

There are quests, intel, and extra intel. I don't know what any of those mean, but I can't do most of them because the whole game is shooting at me.

Quests are mostly plot stuff - either critical path, or side missions that fill out the planets. Intel is smaller tasks you mostly gather from picking up stuff, reading datapads and overhearing conversations. Intel rewards are usually crafting materials or more cosmetics, IIRC?

And everything has a mad Star Wars name.

It's utterly impenetrable.

Yeah, not much I can do to help with that…

That was infinitely more helpful than the game's tutorial, thank you!

Glad to be of assistance!

If I have one (minor) complaint about the rep system, it's that it's too easy to max out everyone. I was never hurting for Credits, so double-crossing was never really a temptation, and as long as you vary who you're doing jobs for and don't accidentally wander into a secure area, you'll hit the top without much trouble. I never really felt like I had to make a meaningful choice between factions.

EDIT: Oh, just remembered - Expert Intel is how you find the NPCs that will unlock new skills for you. There are 9? in total, and they each have three or four abilities that you can learn once you've done their little quest chain.

I really liked Outlaws and I want to go back and play the two bits of DLC but I'm certain I'll have completely forgotten how to play it, plus they've patched it massively since launch.

Best version of Tatooine in any videogame so far, though.

New Doom
I really like it. It's all VERY brown and graphically looks like it was made about ten years ago, but the shield mechanics are fun and I really like the combat loop. It does have a bit of an issue which I think games generally have got better it, which is in large sprawling arenas if you have enemies firing projectiles and running at you, there needs to be some sort of strong directional indicator of where you're getting hit from. I think it can be a bit cluttered and messy, whereas boomer shooters like Prodeus really nail a sense of where you are and where everything else is. But, that said, once you get your eye in and try to fight from a wall or position of safety, and then bound into the middle from time to time to cause mayhem, it does work quite well.

One thing I do appreciate is the superlative positioning of pickups (health and armour) that both lead you where to go and also how to traverse and structure each bigger combat arena. Boltgun is an example of how this can go horribly wrong and end up with confusing levels, with no clear idea of how to progress. Doom has loads of secrets, but if you just want to get on with smacking stuff and finishing a level it's great.

And interestingly, I heard someone on a podcast say how refreshing it was for a game to just have levels. And I have to agree. You can put it on, do a level, turn it off. Bliss.

Re: Outlaws. Am I being thick or is this a game-breaking bug?

What do I do here? If you look at the bottom right of the UI, you can see me pressing triangle to attempt to active the blue electricity blaster thingy.

I haven't been able to access it for hours.

Boltgun was kind of a turd, which is a shame for how fun some of the guns felt, including the titular Boltgun that turned people into lasagna. Main character was an absolute psycopath in the best way though.

I'm interested to see how/if the Doom Dark Ages gameplay develops though, already seeing videos on how you can stagger enemies better and I'm all for seeing people show a mastery to the weapons I wasn't using (in my defence it was the Super Shotgun, it's like the best weapon ever). If you have the spatial awareness of Spider-Man you can make stuff happen for you though, so watching the eventual Ultra-Nightmare full speed slider speedruns are going to be fucking insane. (if you haven't seen it on full speed it's fucking hilarious)

EDIT - seeing if I can do Doom 2016 on UV right now and, I'm much warmer on TDA's Mick Gordon-less OST than most people seem to be (I'd agree it's a bit generic, but it definitely fits) but MAN, Mick Gordon's ost was something else, really was a huge loss, no disrespect to the new guys.

Re: Outlaws. Am I being thick or is this a game-breaking bug?

You definitely need the Ion blaster for story missions, so yeah, that's pretty game-breaking. 🙁 Have you tried upgrading the Ion mode at all? Wondering if that might remind the game how it works.

I went back on to try upgrading, and the gun was magically fixed! It must have read my post.

Yay!

They do seem to have introduced a whole raft of new bugs as part of the recent patch that accompanied the DLC. You may just have picked the worst possible time to play Outlaws! I don't remember anything like that happening in my playthrough.

Yeah it's very buggy. I've now hit two other bugs: one where my pad won't stop rumbling, so I've had to disable the vibration at a system level; and one where I can't interact with a sabaac table, so the whole sabaac questline isn't possible.

I'm sticking with the main quest (just escaped from the High Republic wreck) and it's enjoyable enough. Not sure I'll see it through to the end though.

Getting a bit annoyed with Expedition 33 now. It’s just so confusing to navigate. Every area is huge, and looks more or less the same throughout, and I swear it spins you round sometimes after battles or cutscenes. The area I’m in just consists of dark caves, it’s impossible to work out where you’re supposed to go. There’s no map and the compass is useless.

I really want to like this, I love the setting and the plot and I think the battle system is great, but just progressing from one bit to the next is doing my head in.

Some of the areas aren't linear at all, which is good imo but they made a conscious decision to not give a map (which was absolutely criminal in the gestral village), presumably because of the Expedition somewhat feeling their way forwards but they could have easily had it fill in on the fly. I don't really mind it too much though.

Doom Eternal is still in a league of its own, as soon as you get the dash (and arguably Super Shotgun for the hookshot) you have the most important ability for the game, increased movement. But if we're talking abilities this game fucking exploded after 2016, not only is the Chainsaw now a recurring feature you MUST remember to use or run out of ammo, you also get a flamethrower on cooldown that makes enemies drop armour, a frag/ice grenade on another cooldown on another seperate button and now enemies all have 'weaknesses' like the Arachno turrets or Mancubus arms. Between the cooldown abilities, the synergistic element to them all, the alt fires on your guns and tracking your double jumps and double dashes, you have to now think really rather quickly or get destroyed, I don't think you're going to force the 2016 playstyle here…at least on higher difficulties.

I have to say there is a bit more downtime than I remember, but it doesn't lose a point over it (although his ship is way too big innit'?) and this is the game where the story started to miss the point of what made Doom Guy/Slayer cool IMO, it wasn't because he was a chosen warrior imbued with godly power or whatever bollocks it is in this game, I liked that he was just a really angry space marine driven by pure rage.

Getting a bit annoyed with Expedition 33 now. It’s just so confusing to navigate. Every area is huge, and looks more or less the same throughout, and I swear it spins you round sometimes after battles or cutscenes. The area I’m in just consists of dark caves, it’s impossible to work out where you’re supposed to go. There’s no map and the compass is useless.

I really want to like this, I love the setting and the plot and I think the battle system is great, but just progressing from one bit to the next is doing my head in.

There is the follow the lamp posts thing, but it needs a mini map (apart from the map you can access on the world screen). Surely we'll get a mod soon.