PWB October 2025

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AC Shadows. Not only is this great fun, I reckon it's the most graphically impressive game I've ever played. It feels like this generation's Red Dead 2 (without the attention to detail, perhaps). Same leap in quality from what came before, same 'just have to stop and look' moments. RTGI is a gamechanger.

Mario Galaxy 2. Nintendo's confusing Switch 1/2 game labelling is immediately undone with this game. I'm playing on Switch 2, in 4K, but it's not the 'Switch 2 version', which apparently doesn't exist. You just buy the Switch 1 version and it runs the Switch 2 version. I don't even know any more. It took a good 5 minutes of googling to figure out what to buy. Aside from that, this is still one of the best games ever made.

Hades 2. I've killed the final underworld boss once, and I'm stuck on a certain flying, arena-destroying bastard on Olympus. I'm enjoying this, but I'm not convinced it's the all-timer everyone else seems to think it is. There's only one weapon I actually enjoy using (the dual blades); the rest feel a bit naff. And it has the same problem as the first Hades, namely that for a game entirely focused on combat, the combat isn't very satisfying. There's no weight to anything, and it's laughably hard to read at times.

I also don't really get along with the repetitive nature of rogue-likes. I've already seen the first 4 areas about 30 times, I have zero desire to repeat them at this point. It's saved by the stunning art, good voice acting and interesting story, though.

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Clair Obscur. I dropped off at the end of Act 1, haven't loaded it back up since. The combat started off great, but after 6 or 7 hours it had overstayed its welcome. Also, 'some stuff' happens at the end of Act 1 that apparently leaves people speechless, in awe, shouting GOTY and lots of other superlatives. It barely even registered that something important had happened for me, so I clearly wasn't that invested in the story. Banging soundtrack though.

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The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom - I've been playing this for months now, it just seems to keep going and going and there are huge chunks of it that I don't think I technically need to go and do but I want to because it's just all so good. This really is an all-time classic, it's the best Zelda game I've ever played and it's probably… oooh, top 5 games ever for me? Maybe top 3. It's that good. I haven't been as absorbed in something for ages.

Monster Train 2 - been back to this as it had a huge update which rebalanced a load of stuff, in particular

Spoiler - click to showall the clans from the original game

which was sorely necessary and it's an even better game now they've done that. This is another all-timer for me, the best roguelike I've played and a significant improvement on the first game which was in itself pretty great.

Want

I've downloaded Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 but haven't played them yet as they only unlocked this morning. I'm really looking forward to revisiting them although I'm slightly concerned about the control schemes. The originals (especially 2) were so tied to the Wiimote and Nunchuk combo that I'm not convinced the Pro Controller or even split joycons will really manage to give the same level of control. We'll see.

With luck, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment should drop just as I finish Tears of the Kingdom. Perfect timing.

Anno 117 is out next month, although I haven't yet seen any impressions of the console version at all, which is concerning. They did a pretty decent job adapting 1800 though, so fingers crossed.

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Donkey Kong Bananza - I simply don't like it much. The camera is a constant problem, always too close to your character, usually wanting to point downwards at the top of his head, and it's really hard to get a feel for the environments as a result. The game itself is gaudy and charmless, and there are way too many dialogue boxes with endlessly yapping NPCs which ruin the pacing. I've got down to sub layer 1000, I don't know how far through that is but it's a reasonable way I think, and I'm pretty much done with it. Shame. It's no Mario Odyssey, that's for sure.

Xbox Game Pass - what ARE they thinking?

I've downloaded Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 but haven't played them yet as they only unlocked this morning. I'm really looking forward to revisiting them although I'm slightly concerned about the control schemes. The originals (especially 2) were so tied to the Wiimote and Nunchuk combo that I'm not convinced the Pro Controller or even split joycons will really manage to give the same level of control. We'll see.

I'm playing 2 with the split joycons, and it's basically the same. Slightly slower pointer.

I've got down to sub layer 1000, I don't know how far through that is but it's a reasonable way I think, and I'm pretty much done with it.

1100 is fun, at least. Worth making it there.

I've got down to sub layer 1000, I don't know how far through that is but it's a reasonable way I think, and I'm pretty much done with it.

1100 is fun, at least. Worth making it there.

I found 1000 to 1204 kind of a slog, but 1400 is maybe the best layer in the game. It's also worth remembering that, unlike Mario Odyssey's Moons, progress isn't gated behind Bananas so you don't have to stick around rinsing any levels you're not enjoying.

OK so Mario Galaxy plays absolutely superbly using split joycons, it’s as close to the Wii as we’re going to get. Looks lovely, sounds great, I’m very happy.

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Zelda Breath of the Wild. I always enjoyed this but I found out a bit overwhelming. It uses every button on the controller, everything in the game wears out - fast! Fights are often suddenly deadly. Returning to it now though, I'm absolutely hooked. I think it's because I know what to expect and how to approach it. I've payed better attention to the controls. I'm not working about equipment too much because I know there's always more lying around. I'm avoiding a lot of fights but I'm better prepared (with meal buffs) for the ones I can't avoid. Anyway I'll let you know how I get on, it's early days yet.

I bought The Messenger when someone mentioned it a week ago. It's good! I'm only one level in but I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Want
Clair Obscure, Metaphor, maybe Hyrule Warriors… But really I need to play the games I've got.

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Celeste. At least, I'm done with it for now. I'll be back. Easily a contender for the best videogame I've ever played.

I actually tried the first Hades again last night (I wont buy Hades 2 if I cant even leave the underworld in the first game) and I have similar feelings, when you get a build that doesn't do damage combat encounters really drag. Also I have to start over on Steam so I'm missing a lot, it's whatever but I can't help shake the feeling I only beat Meg because of the carry over power ups. I remember getting an absolutely beastly Gun build and died to Theseus and the Minotaur who for some reason just didn't take any damage from it whatsoever. Obviously an incredible game, the content is off the charts, but as a roguelike whatever it pisses me off, also yes I am very bad at it and need to learn actual builds.

In other news, Sonic Mania continues to just be an absolute joy, it really plays on your expectations with how it reinvents old classics. You'll do one level on Chemical Plant which you might remember as the one strewn with blue and yellow criss crossing pathways and crucially, the purple water you probably drowned in a lot (also banging theme). Well in the second act that purple water is purple jelly and you bounce all over the place on it, and then the fight against Robotnik at the end is literally a Puyo Pop match, incredible stuff. (Or Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine of course, I am that old after all )

Silent Hill 2 Remake is good so far! Although I can see how you'd accuse it of losing a bit of the subtlety of the original, but it's not bad. Although I'll also add the cause of the constant dread in the apartments so far is less the atmosphere and more that the monsters specifically are absolute slithery bastards and pretty effective at jump scaring you…and also beating you up, they're not super easy to kill now and there's a sense of desperation to combat, right down to James breathing frantically as he just beats them to death in a haze of fight of fight response.

I didn't get far because I spent a fair bit on a new puzzle they added before the Hotel Apartments where you go around Silent Hill a bit more to find the puzzle pieces, along the way you scrounge resources and somewhat amusingly bust open all the windows of every car in the city for some painkillers like a junkie. It was pretty neat but in light of this remake apparently feeling a bit bloated I am a bit worried.

EDIT - Reached the 'Otherside' Apartment and yeah, this is good shit, yet another remake that makes me question why MGS Delta was fine the way it was

The SH2 Remake keeps you in such a constant, prolonged state of anxiety that I had to actually stop playing it for a bit when reaching the Historical Society building. This sounds like a big compliment for a horror game and to an extent, yes, but also there's something to be said for letting things ease up a bit and not have your adrenal glands start to fry out. Partly this is because there are just way too many enemies and each encounter gets my heart pumping more than fucking Sekiro did and you're not only constantly feeling that rush you're anticipating being dipped in that pool of adrenaline at basically every single corner. (I will commend them for having enemies feel scary though, if a little annoying sometimes looking at you mannequins)

Also, I'm 9 hours in and just leaving the Hospital….there are like 3 more areas left if they're following the original. No survival horror game should be this long IMO, I beat Resi 2 in like 4 hours man.

This isn't me saying the game has lost any goodwill, at least yet, it's a fantastic horror game so far but maybe not for the unprepared. If the Silent Hill 1 remake is this long though, I dunno man…

Onwards to Silent Hill f then, played up to the first boss and…so far it's okay, I really wanted to be immediately hooked and be here shouting from the rooftops about how while SH2 Remake was good this is a new experience and good golly I'm here for it but despite a solid opening I'll be surprised if this becomes the superior experience by the end.

Main reason is where SH2R's combat was, whilst over served, mostly worked and was tense, visceral. In my small review I didn't even mention how in combat James' desperation just rubs off on you as you stamp an enemy into the ground, here it mostly feels like a pretty janky Dark Souls/Sekiro game, except to say that so far I haven't really enjoyed any fight I've done. This is a weird spot to be in for Silent Hill, a series that used to have dogshit combat but was mostly handwaved as functional now has two games that focus on it, so I don't think in either game you can really dismiss it this time.

At least so far the story has promise (it has a pretty high bar to clear though after the internet practically deified the guy who wrote it though) and the new setting and atmosphere seem pretty good, I don't really feel like I've had the 'first bit' moment like the School in SH1 or Apartments in SH2 so I'll need to play more.

Play
I picked up Tomb Raider Remastered in a recent sale because I had some PSN credit burning a hole in my virtual wallet. The original Tomb Raider - on PC - was one of (maybe the?) first proper 3D games I ever played, so it's something of a formative gaming experience; the caves of Peru are seared into my memory in a way that few games since have ever managed.

It's a strange experience, in a few ways. It's relentlessly unforgiving in terms of platforming, and I regularly smack Lara's face into a wall and fall to her death because I did the wrong kind of jump. I'm starting to get the hang of it now, I think, but it's a much more ponderous experience than anything you get today. Any time I start to get impatient or try to hurry, the game immediately punishes me for it.

I still don't think many games - even in this series - have ever managed to get the same sense of loneliness that the original Tomb Raider has. It stands in stark contrast to modern Tomb Raider (or Uncharted, etc.) where the objective is usually clearly visible, and it's only a matter of working out how to get there; in 1996, there were big, echoing caverns stretching out into the dark, the limited draw distance enforcing a kind of ignorance about the right way to go. There's hardly any music, and even less dialogue - you're on your own, only the whistling Andean wind for company - until the wildlife turns up, anyway.

I can't play it for long in one go - in part, that's down to the controls, which are honestly quite frustrating. It defaults to Tank Control, but the "modern" scheme is even worse, and I found it almost impossible to properly judge a jump with that switched on. The other part is the tension - it's a game where you can die very suddenly, as a result of anything from your own incompetence, to a collapsing floor, to a lion suddenly leaping around a corner that you couldn't see. I'm in the Colosseum at the moment, and that litterbug Pierre keeps popping out from behind a pillar to gun me down. Bastard. I intend to see it through to the end, if I can, but I very much doubt I'll be getting anywhere near the Platinum.

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Because it's on the PS+ Game Catalogue - and because the score (by Garry Schyman of BioShock, with a main theme by Bear McCreary!) is very good - I've been playing a bit of Forspoken, which got roundly dunked on at release, for being quite cringily written. I actually don't think it's that bad - there's too much dialogue, but I don't know that it's much worse than a lot of other games. The controls are a bigger issue (the "parkour" is all but useless when presented with an obstacle much bigger than Frey is), the environments are dull and difficult to navigate, the camera is far too close to follow the action in combat, and basically everyone except Frey looks like a mannequin with a half-frozen face, but I'm kind of enjoying it, in a "this absolutely doesn't matter" kind of way. Wouldn't recommend it.

Want
007: First Light. I mean, obviously.

I keep um-ing and ah-ing over Clair Obscur; obviously it's gotten a (mostly) great reception, but I'm not a big JRPG guy. Maybe in a big sale down the line.

All my Kickstarters to arrive. Most aren't due to ship until next year, though.

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Fascism.

Sadly I can confirm that I am probably never going to enjoy Silent Hill f combat and I don't think it's me being bad even if I am indeed bad.

Scarecrow enemies are so good though, the way you turn away and back to see they've all moved

007 First Light looked so generic and boring in the previews, I was amazed they even bothered to show it. So… many… exploding barrels.

I was fascinated by the current sale of all the Splinter Cell games on Steam. Clicking through them and remembering the experience of each, they form a story, bookended with Uncharted that show the slow decline into the cookie cutter 3rd person action adventure games we get today #dok7

007 First Light looked so generic and boring in the previews, I was amazed they even bothered to show it. So… many… exploding barrels.

In IOI we trust.

Absolutely loved the original Splinter Cell. Seeing that running on the Original Xbox was one of those moments where I knew i wanted the console and game.

Really later to things this month as work has been brutal and feel like I have been continually ill this month, but in an annoying way where i dont feel ill enough to not go work.

Play - nearly bought a PS5 but have instead just returned to playing the 4 i got and hardly used, and back on Ghost of Tshumia, which i am utterly loving again.

Want - I grabbed the Retron 5N console that plays read games via emulator cores, but not had a chance to fire it up yet, so want some time to mess with that at the weekend.

Oh I suppose I might hop on Yotei now I have a PS5, which I didn't for Tsushima, well not one of my own anyway. I still think it just looks like Ubisoft 'done well' and the BOTW snob in me wonders if I should even bother going back to that style of open world again, I'm sure I'll have fun though.

I didn't realise the new Pokemon game is out today! I'm probably going to get it…later, I haven't been following it much but the real time combat stuff looks kind of weird as well as being set all in a city. I loved Arceus so if this is really a sequel to that I guess I should give it the benefit of the doubt though

I think it's a sequel in name only. From what I've read, it's less about collecting and more about battling this time.

Arceus was the only really good thing Pokémon has done for decades, in my opinion. It's a shame they didn't double down on the collecting.

I found that the focus on collecting in Arceus left me less invested in it. I never built a relationship with my team, because I didn't have a team. I had a continually rotating cast of random Pokémon that got punted the moment I managed to snag a higher level version. Capturing Pokémon was so easy that it never made sense to invest in the ones I already had.

Well the Switch 2 has done wonders for Scarlet and Violet apparently, it should now be the open world Pokemon adventure Arceus was kind of hinting at

I know it's October but playing the Resi 4 Remake this month feels like a treat to myself

Pokemon Z-A looks like I'd really like it and also sometimes pretty embarassing, production values that don't seem to match how much money these games generate. Hmmmmm. :thinking:

Play

The new Double Fine game, Keeper, is pretty good but a bit confused about what it wants to be. It's a bit Journey, by way of Avowed's art direction (and a bit of Expedition 33), but there are a lot of puzzles. They don't block progress—they are very easy—but do add friction that I'm not sure is necessary. I'm not finished it yet, but I am hoping it's not got much more to go.

I feel like it's too long and too linear; it needs more side-path exploration and discovery stuff, but a more focused main route.

New plays.

Alan Wake 2. This is almost brilliant, but I can't help feeling it'd be better if it let itself be more videogamey. The twin peaks stuff is fun, but right now (I'm in Watery, at the theme park) it's making up 80% of the game. The gunplay is great; give me something to shoot!

World of Warcraft. Subbed again to mop up the latest expansion story. The two new zones are great, no-one does this stuff as well as Blizzard. Just an incredible, expansive, beautiful place to spend time. My playtime just on one character now exceeds two months.

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Slowly closing in on all 50 achievements for Monster Train 2. One of them looks tricky (the score 50k in a daily challenge) but the rest are probably doable (I think I have 3 or 4 to go). Hundreds of hours in it and I don't even think I've got truly broken decks yet (I've had the screen a few times that asks if you really want to continue with a loop of triggers that has been going on for ages, but even then, looking at Reddit I'm miles off some of the truly bonkers builds). Probably an all timer for me. When's Monster Train 3 out.

Weirdly, I had a strong urge to play Arkham Asylum, and then realised I seem to be working through Gar's games he's finished this year. Even so, I'd have to agree - for a 2009 game it's hardly aged, and it's so lean and devoid of bloat. Only problem is the subtitles weren't designed for an era of handhelds and 1080p, so they're absolutely tiny. And, as I'm really down with GenZ, I always play with subtitles on.

Also, following in Gar's footsteps I had an urge to get back into Indiana Jones, which I dropped as it wasn't doing anything for me. Clearly my new life is trying to enjoy anything Gar has completed 6 months ago.

I have to get back to Banishers (which is absolutely the blandest game I've ever played) and LA Noire (which I restarted and is quite a good fit for a handheld). As I've said before, I don't think we've had another game quite like LA Noire since, have we?

I've also downloaded Keeper to give it a shot.

Want
To complete the full Garwoofoo this month I fancied buying Mario Galaxy - as far as I know it's basically a 60fps experience on the OG Switch right? I really enjoyed it at the time and I've never played the second.

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I was hoping I'd like Ball X Pit - which is allegedly the new roguelike hotness. But I played it a bit and then got stuck on a screen with no obvious way to continue. I'm all for light tutorials, but I was so annoyed I gave up. I'm sure it's great, but that level of irritation is too much in this era of infinite distractions.

Glad to see my new career as an influencer is going well, even if my sphere of influence only extends to one person so far.

I've been playing Doom: The Dark Ages, which is a completely ridiculous videogame and, incidentally, a terrible Doom game. It completely misunderstands what made the original Doom so good - the pacing, the suspense, the transition between flickering hallways and sudden attacks, the way you had to mentally map spaces out in your mind, the intricate levels and well-hidden secrets - and simply goes all-out with an audiovisual onslaught that never lets up for a second. You are shooting things, hitting things with flails or smacking things with shields pretty much every second you are playing this game, while a comically loud metal soundtrack grinds out in the background and more and more monsters spawn in around you.

It's really quite brilliant even if it seems to be based on the popular misconception of how Doom played, rather than what it actually was. Dok would hate it. I'm having fun. Maybe you can try that one next cav.

I downloaded the Assassin's Creed Ezio bundle now that Ubisoft+ is included with GamePass (if I'm paying for it, might as well get the use out of it). Assassin's Creed II is a much nippier game than I remembered! Almost too quick, to be honest; the speed at which Ezio goes from rowdy womaniser to slicing up carotids is incredible.

It looks fucking atrocious, though. Shaky mocap, wildly inconsistent facial animation, terrible voice acting, a script that would make Dan Houser embarrassed by its lack of subtlety… It's not aged well. Nor have the controls, which make traversing the world at speed an exercise in blind hope.

It's kinda nice, though. Low-pressure stuff, though I'm not looking at the map much if I can help it.

Glad to see my new career as an influencer is going well, even if my sphere of influence only extends to one person so far.

I've been playing Doom: The Dark Ages, which is a completely ridiculous videogame and, incidentally, a terrible Doom game. It completely misunderstands what made the original Doom so good - the pacing, the suspense, the transition between flickering hallways and sudden attacks, the way you had to mentally map spaces out in your mind, the intricate levels and well-hidden secrets - and simply goes all-out with an audiovisual onslaught that never lets up for a second. You are shooting things, hitting things with flails or smacking things with shields pretty much every second you are playing this game, while a comically loud metal soundtrack grinds out in the background and more and more monsters spawn in around you.

It's really quite brilliant even if it seems to be based on the popular misconception of how Doom played, rather than what it actually was. Dok would hate it. I'm having fun. Maybe you can try that one next cav.

I've played Dark Ages quite a bit. I think it's quite brave that it attempts to reinvent the formula from the two modern reinterpretations that preceded it. I think it has a really chunky and interesting feel to the combat and some nice visual flourishes.

Where I think it's less successful is that it isn't in the Doom 2016/Prodeus design space where there is an elegance to the level design, with both the intricacy you talk about but also how it drives the player forwards through intelligent lighting and signposting. Dark Ages does feel a bit like a series of arenas and constant combat, and also suffers a bit from the cardinal sin of this sort of game which is attacks from blind spots/behind that are hard to mitigate and predict because they come from random spawns. The story too though, dearie me, who thought that was a good idea?

It's good though, and hats off to the devs for not just turning out the same game again.

I had fun with The Dark Ages but the huge open maps and the 'stand and fight' philosophy puts it well below the other two for me, as awesome as the Shield can be most of the time.

Good lord Battlefield 6 is fun.

I've got my shiny new game blinders on, so this means nothing until I've spent more time with it, but I leave every match thinking it's the most fun I've ever had with an online FPS. Insane, explosive, beautiful, adrenaline-filled, crunchy, joyful stuff.

Oh, and I binned Alan Wake 2.

It disappeared too far up its own arse for my liking, which is a shame because I've got a lot of time for Remedy.

Good lord Battlefield 6 is fun.

I've got my shiny new game blinders on, so this means nothing until I've spent more time with it, but I leave every match thinking it's the most fun I've ever had with an online FPS. Insane, explosive, beautiful, adrenaline-filled, crunchy, joyful stuff.

Do you not think the maps are a little too overly designed (very symmetrical) and weighted too much towards snipers? It looks glorious and nothing does spectacle like Battlefield, but you'd wonder what sort of longevity it has (people tend to quickly disperse if there's a constant sniping death cycle).

I haven't played it enough to appreciate the map design yet, I reckon I've only seen each map once or twice. Definitely haven't had any sniper issues yet, the glowing scopes make them really easy to Spot for your team. But maybe that's something that'll start annoying me in time!

I normally play these games as a medic. I don't have the skillz to take on people directly, and it's very satisfying huddling behind cover, waiting for a gap, then running into open fire and zapping half the team back to life.