PWB August 2024

If it helps, it legit made my day!

I'm about 20 hours into Trails and have been meaning to go back to it for ages. Guess I might just play this one instead!

Trails FC is still a fine game but the remake for the sequel is where shit pops off imo, and the best character in the series joins.

Additional PLAY:
Because I'm an idiot who can't just buy things once, I grabbed Burnout Paradise while it was only a fiver in the current Switch sale. I love BP, and I'm hugely surprised at how well it runs on Switch. I'm playing in Handheld mode, which I think helps as the smaller screen definitely covers up what could look sketchy in 1080p on a big screen. I also pick up Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered for £6 and change, since I've not played it much but remember enjoying it on… PS4? I think.

Oh, and I'm back into Balatro, purely because a shiny free update dropped which does nothing but let you change the card designs to things like Dave The Diver and Vampire Survivors. Why not, eh?

Played through the Final Fantasy XVI demo on PC and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's a generous demo, the first couple of hours of the main game or so, and while it's inevitably very cut-scene heavy it does set things up pretty well. Also - while I still think Final Fantasy games should be turn-based, really - the combat system seems a lot better than whatever nonsense was going on in FFXV, and I had a lot of fun with it.

Quite tempted to get the full game now when it comes out. Demo progress carries over which is a very nice touch. What was the consensus on it on PS5, was it considered to be a good one?

The Switch sale is a bit intimidating with its size to be honest so instead of buying anything, I have had a look at all the titles on my "sort by playtime" list and have started to have a go on all the ones I haven't even played for a minute.

Mark of the Ninja (actually seems brilliant)
Blizzard collection - specifically rock and roll racing
About 3 or 4 other arcade collection/Johnny Nitro/Neo Geo games.

Then moved to The Banner Saga 3. Which I had started on my original Switch but had an issue moving to this one, that now seems resolved so back to working through that and loving it. Like I did the first two.

Mark of the Ninja is great, a bit of a forgotten classic there I feel, although I remain perpetually disappointed that they didn't do a follow-up called Kevin of the Ninja.

If you like that then, weirdly, the closest thing to them are the Assassin's Creed Chronicles games, a trilogy of stealthy 2D side-scrollers set in interesting locations that seem to have been equally overlooked with the passage of time.

Played through the Final Fantasy XVI demo on PC and was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It's a generous demo, the first couple of hours of the main game or so, and while it's inevitably very cut-scene heavy it does set things up pretty well. Also - while I still think Final Fantasy games should be turn-based, really - the combat system seems a lot better than whatever nonsense was going on in FFXV, and I had a lot of fun with it.

Quite tempted to get the full game now when it comes out. Demo progress carries over which is a very nice touch. What was the consensus on it on PS5, was it considered to be a good one?

I enjoyed it. Some of the set pieces are incredible, and the plot is better than most videogame fare. (But still bonkers JRPG nonsense.)

It completely strips away most RPG elements, and I think a lot of the FF faithful hated it for that.

But some of those boss fights are worth the entry fee alone.

One thing I've just remembered. Most of the side quests are crap, and you'll learn pretty quickly to ignore them. But towards the end, the main party members all have side quests that really should have been part of the main quest.

So when a main party member offers you a side quest, especially towards the end, accept it.

The combat is super fun but/even if the enemy variety is too limited in my opinion, I think the story is a real let down though. The actual plot of the game aside, where is my cast? If you play FF7 Remake/Rebirth I think you'll understand my point here, hell, even FFXV got that part right.

Mark of the Ninja is great, a bit of a forgotten classic there I feel, although I remain perpetually disappointed that they didn't do a follow-up called Kevin of the Ninja.

If you like that then, weirdly, the closest thing to them are the Assassin's Creed Chronicles games, a trilogy of stealthy 2D side-scrollers set in interesting locations that seem to have been equally overlooked with the passage of time.

Ta will keep and eye. On the 4th mission of Mark now and it's really well designed. I love that you can fail the objective but not the mission as it just pivots. It's been ages since I played them but it reminds me slightly of the Splinter Cell GBA titles (might have been DS). In terms of the hiding in doorways and climbing etc.

Genshin Impact just released it's new update, adding a new region to the game and I've been unable to stop myself from playing it. The gimmick in the last region of Fontaine was underwater swimming and to date it's my favourite swimming gameplay I've played in terms of how it feels, this time you can assume the forms of different animals to get around and despite initial doubts on how this would top swimming it's actually super fun. For a start it actually super affects traversal, you can control the Saurian that digs underground and can climb walls completely stamina free, you can use the saurian that uses it's tongue as a grapple hook or the aquatic Saurian that while can't swim underwater it absolutely jets across the surface.

I found a ruin last night just from hunting down the Pyro statue upgrades and ended up solving a puzzle to get inside and triggered a hefty sidequest. Even though it's a gacha, it still has a top tier world design and exploring experience.

They also added some QOL to make the comabt management side of things feel less like a job, sadly some of it still feels a bit like an attempt to replicate the old school MMO FFXI style and I think this is still what turns people away from going all in on this as an RPG despite it having a fantastic combat system with the elemental reactions. (compare ascending characters in this to Honkai Star Rail, it's a huge difference)