PWB October: BOO

Play
007 First Light is just what I wanted. Great to look at, well acted, well written, and just a really enjoyable romp. I'm not sure how much replayability it'll have, but for now it's a lot of fun.

Diablo 4. I've bounced off this about 3 times, but I got the itch last week and, for some reason, I've stuck with it this time. The worldbuilding is second-to-none (Blizzard innit), and it's always satisfying crunching hundreds of enemies to death in one glorious AOE fireball. I just wish it let me play how I want to; slowly. It really betrays its live-service roots. It's desperate to get you to max level and CONSUMING CONTENT, rather than taking it slow and exploring this stunning(ly ugly) world they've created. I don't care about the latest 'season', I want to wander around the starting zone. I've already dodged two free max-level upgrades the game tried to present me with.

DQ 7 Reimagined. I played the demo (the first 3 hours) of this months ago, and had almost forgotten the plot, so figured it was time to pick up the full game. It's a very cosy game. The way the story is structured, with each zone being standalone little tales, makes it feel like playing a Sunday-morning cartoon. And for a top-down game, the graphics are frequently stunning, especially the character models in the cutscenes.

Want
WoW Forever. GTA 6. Ocarina of Time. November is going to be an all-time month.

Play

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave - which is brilliant but also comically large. I've put hours and hours into it and I still haven't completed part one of the game with even one of the game's four main characters. It's a really great game though with lots and lots to do and I can see myself chipping away at this for months.

Final Fantasy XIV - also so large it's just an ongoing background project really. One of the few MMOs that doesn't care at all about getting you to endgame so you can just potter through most of it at your own speed. It incentivises players to revisit older content so there's always someone around to run dungeons with, or you can do pretty much all of it solo these days. A really fantastic game (and I'm a couple of hundred hours into the "free trial", so a very cheap and accessible title to get into, too).

Want

I'd like to play the Witcher 3 remaster but it seems to have come in a bit hot so I'm going to give it a couple of weeks and some patches to sort itself out.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is out in a few days, I'm waiting for reviews but if it's good then a bit of arcadey pod racing could be a good way to spend some time. I still want to get Zero Company too but Fire Emblem is meeting all my turn-based strategy needs for now.

Bin

I still don't give a monkeys about GTA 6 and I'll probably just hide away playing Zelda or something while everyone else goes on about it.

Play
The amount of GOTY tier games released in succession in the last few weeks is frankly ridiculous, I didn't have to buy them all Day 1 but I couldn't help it, FOMO baby!

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave - I still have issues with this, mainly the gap between actual map fights, but on the whole this is probably the best Switch 2 only game I've played…but it's also a huge game like Gar said, so rather than try to gorge myself on it non stop I've been pacing myself and I think it's making me appreciate it much more than I would.

Trails in the Sky: 2nd Chapter - I was going to try playing this and Fire Emblem somewhat alternately but I've only beat the prologue on this so far, I usually play a Trails game non stop until I beat it but with Fire Emblem out on the same day I knew that as much as I love Trails I'd be thinking of Fire Emblem non stop if I put that back so I'm trying to wait until I can give this the time it deserves by giving Fire Emblem the time it deserves.

I was so sure this would be my easy GOTY but Fire Emblem really is quite good, if they remade Trails SC (my fave game in the series) as well as they did Trails FC (Trails 1st is in my opinion, the best example of a remake of any game I've played I think?) then it still might be, but we'll see. @_@

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve - Fucking hell this just came out globally today and it's yet another banger, I am not entirely surprised as AC7 was excellent and this is a series that nailed the formula first try way back on PS1 so I'm glad to see this review so well. I wouldn't have started this today but I think a mission based jet simulator is a nice palette cleanser for 2 massive RPGs, and I just wanted to blow up planes.

…

A bit too many FPV cutscenes of a typically confusing AC story but it's really good, it looks freaking gorgeous, flying atop the clouds greets you with a Realm of Heaven, a landscape of rolling cotton, then you fly through them and the water droplets condense on the screen uuuuuwwaaaaa

As I said, the formula hasn't really changed, you fly and shoot missiles at far away blinking red targets until there's a big orange ball at the end of the wispy line of smoke. AC7's strength was actually in it's mission variety though, so I don't expect this to be any different.

insert a whole load of horror games here, Resi, Alan Wake hopefully, Fatal Frame…etc

Want
I only needed to play up to the first boss of the new Castlevania: Belmont's Curse to now I'm getting it, this is why I didn't buy the Prince of Persia metroidvania as well, I knew I was going to possibly get this.

Play
Outrun 2006, Space Invaders Extreme, Zelda Four Swords GC Mario Kart Wii but mostly I am finally playing Paper Mario Thousand Year Door.

I am loving the Retroid Pocket Nova.

Want
A bit of time to set up playing Steam games on my Nova so that I can play Trails in the Sky SC.

Started playing Fatal Frame 2/Project Zero 2* a few days ago and last night and it honest to god feels like one of the best horror games I've ever played.

The atmosphere and visuals are all on point but the combat really seals the deal for me, using a camera to exorcise a ghost is already more original than shooting or bludgeoning it to death but having to build power by keeping it in shot as it comes closer before snapping the shutter is a great mechanic. You can upgrade the Camera to mitigate the risk but it still feels cool.

Also, it's not exactly Silent Hill 2 levels of pure mental assault but the atmosphere is great, really cold and immersive, I'm playing an undub just because I wanted that 'Ringu' vibe a bit more as well. I'll never be truly scared by a horror game again but some of the sound effect jump scares have made me jump a bit

God I hope the Remake of this that came out a few months ago is good

*Fatal Frame is not only a much better name and named after an important game mechanic, its the one that the series clearly used going forward so I'm calling it that

Play
I have been dabbling in Witcher 3: Remastered - I think it's safe to say the Switch 2 port, while a vast improvement and a technical marvel at 10 watts, isn't the way any sane person should be playing it if they have a choice. I don't think the changes are really all that pronounced. As others have said, I think it looks brighter, but perhaps not better. The controls and responsiveness are better, but it's still got that slight mid 2010s jank to it. And everyone's face still looks a bit basic (showing that while graphical progress has stalled, it hasn't stopped entirely). But when the sun it setting and the wind is whipping through trees, Witcher 3 really does a good sense of place very, very well. I still think I'll grind on with Cyberpunk though - if I'm going to finish one of these two CPDR monsters it'll be Cyberpunk.

Starfield I'd finally got around to rebuilding my main PC, lifting into the AM5 era, and I'd been going back through games just checking everything was fine (and pushing up the shinies). And I ended up playing a fair bit of Starfield. Which, I just don't think is as shit as everyone says. It is sort of shit, and absolutely a terrible engine trying its best to so space stuff, but it really is quite respectful of your time. You can wander, but also if you want to go somewhere, you can just click on it. A lot of people hate it, as it seems to make the universe feel small, but if you can control yourself, I've found it quite refreshing. Also, the planets are all quite barren and boring with little settlements that aren't that exciting either - but the bleakness is also quite interesting. I find No Man's Sky is now so desperate to please that the HUD is covered in fucking icons. Here, you can trudge across a stone strewed landscape for 5 minutes, find a small shipping container and then find a chocolate bar left on a table after going through 2 airlocks and a loading screen. It's quite refreshingly bland.

Ball X Pitt I have, it has to be said, slowly become obsessed with this on Switch 2. As I've said, I originally on PC got stuck with a bug that meant I couldn't progress. On Switch I got over that hump and I'm now all in. BOING.

Also continuing with Zero Company (which I like, but needs more enemy variety and less American accents), and the usual dabbling with Crossworlds, MK World and bits and bobs.

I also picked up Last of Us 2, to try to finish that on PC (as my PS5 is back in Wales, and I'm in Ireland). Can confirm Last of Us 2 does not run on PC handhelds at anything approaching a decent frame rate. Such a good looking game though, good lord.

Want
I guess Galaxy Racer - I do REALLY like the sound of the more roguelight structure to a racing league. A bit of jeopardy is always welcome.

Bin
Vets. We had to have a stray cat put down (we'd been feeding it for a year, but it was not healthy) and now another cat is ill, and we're already 500 euros down at a vet. Absolute fucking racket. I appreciate it's the hardest job to train for, but vets fees in the UK and Ireland are now an absolute scandal.

This cat is 17 - so there comes a point where you have to make brutal economic decisions. My partner has two other cats that are older. One 24 and the other 29. The oldest living cat on the planet is 30. This 29 year old cat is healthier than I am. So the only potential way of recouping these costs is hanging in for another year or two and trying to get on This Morning.

Oh yeah, two games I forgot to mention, Gears of War: E-Day and Galaxy Racer, hearing really good things about both, Gears feels slightly less of a big event than it used to be but I really enjoyed the original's combat design when I replayed it a few years ago. I might have forgot more games and/or more are coming on the way, just an absolute cascade of really good games in a sort span of time @_@

I'm also quite tempted by Galactic Racer, though the campaign thing makes me less certain; I've never really gotten along with roguelikes.

Do we need another arcade racer with infinite restarts and rewind features though? The jeopardy in Forza is non-existent. I think this is a great idea that should be taken into a lot of racing games going forwards - some sort of mode that makes decisions matter.

Oh, the instant rewind is certainly a step too far. I'm not dead set against Galactic Racer's implementation; just wary of it.

I'm always surprised that racing games don't have a 'one rewind' option. So you can't rely on it, but you also get one chance to undo a split-second error that would otherwise waste ten minutes of your time.

It turns out that running Steam games in my Nova is about as difficult as opening a new app and logging into my Steam account.

I now have Trails in the Sky SC (old version) ready to go!

I'm always surprised that racing games don't have a 'one rewind' option. So you can't rely on it, but you also get one chance to undo a split-second error that would otherwise waste ten minutes of your time.

I could see twinning it with your boost bar or something might be fair (rewind a mistake but lose all your turbo). Forza races are dull as fuck. I once caught myself rewinding because I though I hadn't taken an optimal route through a corner.