PWB January 2023

Oh, that disappears pretty quickly. Was that right at the start, on Earth? By the first main mission the enemies are pretty easy, and headshots are one-shot-kills.

Yep, right at the start. I quit out as soon as I made it to the city. My 'one hour' alarm was ringing in my head, wasn't feeling it so I just deleted it.

Well I'm not going to say you are missing out on a masterpiece.

Additional PLAY:

Rock Band 4 - After a very drunken Rock Band session at my partner's parents' place over Christmas, I picked up a Beatles Rock Band wireless drum kit off eBay for £50 and a Legacy instrument adapter for significantly more (though not as much as eBay wanted) from CEX. Both arrived in Germany yesterday (had to route via my mum's house in the UK because of no EU delivery options) and they work fine. Also dug out my old Guitar Hero 3 Gibson, so now I've got three guitars, a drum kit and a mic. Finally, the band is back together. I did have the Beatles Band in a Box ages back, but my ex wife made me sell it because… well, because she's awful and selfish and WHATEVER Rock Band parties are back on the menu.

There's a properly bizarre response to my opinion on High On Life over on rllmuk. I copied and pasted my thoughts from here and am getting accused of all sorts of stuff now.

It's in the specific thread on the game, if you want a laugh.

Good grief, felt… you should know better than to share opinions with people on the internet. That how World War 1 started!

Yeah, it was my own fault.

Apparently me saying that a lot of the humour is cruel is that same as accusing the developers and anyone who likes the game of being terrible people.

One of the funniest things is that this is coming from someone who reviewed the game and gave it 8/10, wheras I gave it 7/10.

Additional PLAY:

Old stuff - My new flat has a room I'm using as my home office, and an absolute shittonne of plug sockets. I've taken this opportunity to set up some old consoles, specifically because I can: the PS4 stays in the basement (although that might change at some point) but I've got the Wii U going ahead of the eShop closing and rigged up the GameCube as well. Plenty there I want to get playing (Metroid Prime Trilogy! Wind Waker HD! Zack and Wiki! Pikmin! Other stuff!), so that's nice.

Additional WANT:

Steam Link - Got a hankering to play some Steam stuff on my TV, so need to tinker with the app on my phone to make that happen. Would be nice to get a box but those have been discontinued so good luck there.

I’ve got a Steam Link that I don’t use any more, you can have it if you want.

I’ve got a Steam Link that I don’t use any more, you can have it if you want.

(please substitute the lyrics accordingly, I have enough men)

Play "Link's Awakening" - this is great. I've spent equal parts of my time with it so far (c6 hours or so) solving some very well constructed dungeons and wandering the overworld looking for the single obtusely-clued way to get to the next dungeon. It's old school in that it doesn't hold your hand at all (in fact, it actively laughs at you for asking for help on occasion), but that's pretty refreshing - there were no real tutorials, just a brief "you're on a beach, here's a shield, let's go!" cut scene and off you trot. What it doesn't do is punish you for experimenting or exploring though, you just hit dead ends and have to walk back. It's genuinely a pleasure to play, and looks/sounds super shiny too.

I have spent a considerable amount of time with it marvelling that this was first built for the OG gameboy. It's frankly amazing how well designed and put together it is, how many systems and locations there are, how big the map is, etc, considering the limitations. Must have been genuinely astonishing back in the day. It's still pretty bloody good now, and is scratching an itch for something that requires active engagement and is fun to explore without making me feel bad for every little mistake.

Very much recommended.

Link's Awakening was my favourite game for many years.

Felt's brand of controversial right-wing hate-speech posting sure makes people angry over at rllmuk.

I largely agree with your take on HoL, though I do think I'm more accepting of the fact that I don't think a lot of it is pitched or planned. It's stream of consciousness from a damaged man with a game built around it. It's disturbing, awkward, cruel and weird in bits, but not in a thought-through sense. It just sort of, is. And I think we arrive at the same place - it has a level of audacity to it which I find engaging. It's nice to even find a joke not funny in a game because you're repulsed by it than the entire game sliding past your eyes like an omelette down a window 7.5/10 - I HATE YOU FELTMONKEY

A late play - did we ever decide what we thought about Mirror's Edge Catalyst? I'm playing a lot of it and…. it's really good? I know it's not as good as the first one. But… we all said it shouldn't be open world, and it kinda works? And it's all really fun and quite novel and the traversal is still amazing. And I beat your score on the first time trial felt (which you set on the PS4 25 years ago). I don't know, I can't stop playing it and I remember being a lot more disappointed with it at the time. Someone else here was always a big defender of it - possibly Brian - so whoever you are, I think I'm with you now.

ME Catalyst is pretty good. It’s well put together, the environment is fun to explore and the ability to run away from a riot cop only to run up a wall, 180, jump and land knee first on said cop’s face is worth whatever time it takes to get there.

I recently replayed ME 1 and it has aged remarkably well.

ACAB

I really liked the first Mirror's Edge and these posts are genuinely the only positive things I've ever heard about the sequel. Maybe I need to check it out after all.

It's ME 1 with some Assassin's Creed map clearance. You'll love it.

It feels a bit like it was lost in a storm of criticism about the fact it was open world and not quite as focused as the first. But there's a real joy to just running around the environments. The plot and everything is a bit haphazard, all the characters are deeply unlikeable and most of the missions involve really basic tasks that make little sense. But, it has a flow and joy to it that I hadn't realised I'd not really felt in a game since ME 1, even though nearly every game now has wall jumps and fast traversal. It's quite rare these days that I'll tolerate a game with a radically different control scheme too - like, if jump isn't A and reload X then it's just irritating, but the controls in this are great. Something about the traversal being where your guns normally are and vice versa really works. Also, the combat, while basic, allows you to smack people in a direction (in to one another, off a ledge) or just ignore it all together. It makes more sense than Faith being some sort of super soldier - if she keeps momentum she can skip around threats and cause chaos, get bogged down and you get the shit kicked out of you.

The aesthetic is still brave too. Faith sees the city with the stuff that's important to her to traverse it highlighted and the rest bleached out. It's such a brave and strong artistic direction to follow, that while they get confused in bits and the style wobbles (e.g. other characters and advertising) it makes the entire thing really cohesive. I could do with it not running at 800p on the PS5, but it is 60fps and the style means it's not too distracting. So yeah, surprising. The sort of game you can whack on, collect 14 random objects, rescue a pigeon, beat felt in a time trial and then switch off and feel you escaped for 45 minutes.

Felt's brand of controversial right-wing hate-speech posting sure makes people angry over at rllmuk.

I largely agree with your take on HoL, though I do think I'm more accepting of the fact that I don't think a lot of it is pitched or planned. It's stream of consciousness from a damaged man with a game built around it. It's disturbing, awkward, cruel and weird in bits, but not in a thought-through sense. It just sort of, is. And I think we arrive at the same place - it has a level of audacity to it which I find engaging. It's nice to even find a joke not funny in a game because you're repulsed by it than the entire game sliding past your eyes like an omelette down a window 7.5/10 - I HATE YOU FELTMONKEY

A late play - did we ever decide what we thought about Mirror's Edge Catalyst? I'm playing a lot of it and…. it's really good? I know it's not as good as the first one. But… we all said it shouldn't be open world, and it kinda works? And it's all really fun and quite novel and the traversal is still amazing. And I beat your score on the first time trial felt (which you set on the PS4 25 years ago). I don't know, I can't stop playing it and I remember being a lot more disappointed with it at the time. Someone else here was always a big defender of it - possibly Brian - so whoever you are, I think I'm with you now.

Those rllmuk snowflakes just can't handle my searing hot takes. Wake up sheeple!

I love the image of games sliding past your eyes like an omlette down a window, although that does imply that you've seen so many omlettes sliding down your window you're bored of them. I don't know if I made it clear enough that I give the game a lot of credit for at least trying something different, even if it had ended up as something akin to outsider art, that would be worthy of praise. I'm going to continue playing at least until I run into the Red Letter Media guys. I think Best Of The Worst is my favorite thing in all visual media.

Regarding ME: Catalyst, I'm distraut that you beat my time. That was the last iota of achievement I was clinging to in my shameful existence. If nothing else, I at least had my ME: Catalyst time. I lost a Wordle streak of 314 last week because I forgot to do one day's Wordle, and now this. I actually can't remember playing it. I think I loaded it once, played it for one evening, and then something else came out or appeared on PS plus or something and I never played it again. I'm pretty sure I didn't dislike it or anything. I should give it another chance. But then, I haven't played Dishonoured 2 or the new Monkey Island game yet. I'm sure I'll get round to it one day.

Your time was the highest of everyone on my friends list. I assumed it was a point of pride, so it motivated me to make sure I demolished it. The fact you appeared on no other leaderboards apart from the first one I saw raised no red flags that you'd barely played the game.

Probably out and about accusing people of being hateful and nasty for liking things instead of knuckling down to getting more time trials done. Typical felt behaviour.

Maybe I'm just naturally good at Mirror's Edge Catalyst. It would fit with my life in general if that turned out to be my superpower. Not even amazing at it - just good enough to set a time that takes a few minutes of effort to beat.

About 4 attempts and 2 minutes tops, but like your Fortnite expertise let's not dig any further.

You're now being mean to feltmonkey on two separate gaming forums, you monster.

Don't worry, I'm sneakily beating some of his records that he doesn't care about on Forza Horizon 5.

By the way, additional play - Forza Horizon 5. I absolutely hate everything it stands for.

I fucking hate Horizon 5 and you're right I hadn't put any effort into it. But because of this revelation I'll be grinding it tonight.

Would you like it if it wasn't so in your face?

I agree the festival schtick is genuinely awful, but the core driving is some of my favourite ever.

Play
Monster Hunter Rise. Already played through the village quests on Switch, and although I have every intention of making it to the hub quests this time, I know for a fact I'll fail. It's beautiful on Series X though – 4K and 120fps. It's magic. I've gotten to the point now where I can really see and feel the difference between 60 and 120, hopefully I don't get spoiled…

Tiny Tina. I know these games aren't regarded as masterpieces or anything, but they're always good, reliable fun.

Xenoblade 3. Still plugging away at this. I've never actually finished a Xenoblade game, but this might just be my first. It's absolutely stunning, and will probably end up my game of the year. Who says the Switch needs an update?

Forza Horizon 5 is like being repeatedly violated by a crowd of Guardian readers dressed like Speedy Gonzales.

Would you like it if it wasn't so in your face?

I agree the festival schtick is genuinely awful, but the core driving is some of my favourite ever.

The driving model is very good, yes. But everything around it is horrible. It's hard to explain why it's so hateful. It seems utterly obnoxious and weirdly entitled, you know? Like every character is wrapped up in this gross, environmentally-disastrous festival. They smash through people's gardens, drive families off the road in their supercars, destroy trees and wildlife habitat, desecrate important historical sites with their nonsense, and ruin the lives of the locals with their noise, their pollution, and their self-absorbed disregard for anything but their own entertainment, which they don't even seem particularly entertained by. They find people's old cars in storage and help themselves to them. Everyone seems enamoured by my driver guy, despite the fact that I can't drive in a straight line and am responsible for literally dozens of vehicular homicides. I've never disliked a character I'm playing more, and I've played Sonic games. I've done worse things in this game than I ever did as Kratos in God of War.

I get that it's just a game, and it's meant to be cartoonish, but it's so realistically rendered that that kind of goes out of the window. It looks so much like a real place that you can't help but see it as one, to a degree. It tries to frame itself as taking place in the real world by having a real-world setting and real-life vehicles, making weird in-game excuses for the existence of this festival, and even giving us facts about the places and cars. You might think I'm being ridiculous, but I think we do tend to care for the wider world of video games. I feel distraut if I accidentally kill an animal in a game, for example, and always try not to harm innocent bystanders. Except in High On Life, of course.

I forgot to mention the DJs! God, the DJ's are awful, just dreadful scum of the highest order. They're stupid, vacuous, inane, blandly cheerful, tedious, and trancendentally irritating. The game needs the option to lock all the DJs (and the rest of the supporting cast, and my driver guy) into a building with all the awful cars in the basement with their engines running and hoses running from their exhausts into their bedrooms like the start of Midsommar.

Hi Fi Rush

An absolutely beautiful looking, incredibly charming game that draws together Jet Set Radio Future, Sunset Overdrive, Viewtiful Joe, Guitar Hero and the 2010 Scott Pilgrim film into something that's absolutely fantastic. Apart from one small issue - I don't think the rhythm action bit of it works AT ALL for me. I can't find any correlation between the beat and the actions on screen - to the extent I'm doubting if my TV has a delay, or the gamepad I'm using (I'm running a PC via a 3rd party Xbox controller adapter into a TV in Game mode) is off somehow. I can get about 30-40% accuracy and that's it. Most of the tutorials were like Driver on PS1 and I felt might moor me in them for an eternity till I could visually guess where it wanted me to press a button.

Perhaps I'm old.

EDIT: No, I found a latency check in the game and it's miles off. Not the pad, but certainly a big delay being introduced somewhere. I'm still young. I knew it.

Check your Xbox sound settings maybe. Mine defaults to Dolby Digital, which my TV and soundbar support, but it adds latency. It's only really noticeable on stuff that's supposed to be lip synced, or rhythm games, but it's really irritating. On stereo uncompressed it's all perfectly synced so I've just left it on that.

If that doesn't work, you might want to try the controller via USB to see if it's the 3rd party adapter that's at fault. The official Microsoft adapter is fine but I don't know about other makes. Bluetooth adds a shit ton of latency. So it depends what kind of connection it's establishing I guess.

I have a small form factor PC connected to the TV and run Gamepass (and Steam and other stuff) on that. Effectively an Xbox, in a PC shell. The adapter is using a non Bluetooth standard for connection and is a copy of the official Microsoft one (which is ruinous). All sound settings are set to stereo and the TV outputs with no flavour of audio enhancement.

But if you run the latency test in the game it's a clear delay between the screen and audio. I have the TV in game mode and it's usually fine for latency, but I haven't really tried a timing specific game till now. I might also try a different HDMI port to see if that's the issue. Otherwise time to dump it and get a new TV (any excuse).

It's annoying as the game is great. I hear it runs really well on the Steam deck, which might be a better home for it. I'd highly recommend a download for anyone who had Gamepass though, I could see it becoming quite the cult hit.

Try headphones as well through the controller (if that works using your setup). That gives the absolute best latency for me.

I agree that Hi Fi Rush is excellent, though. It's like a lost Dreamcast game.

I have a small form factor PC connected to the TV and run Gamepass (and Steam and other stuff) on that. Effectively an Xbox, in a PC shell.

I'm very tempted to do something like this, mainly for Indies rather than big budget 4k 120fps stuff. I have no idea what sort of thing I'd want in terms of specs though - would something like this do? Or can I do better/cheaper/etc?

Monster Hunter Rise. Already played through the village quests on Switch, and although I have every intention of making it to the hub quests this time, I know for a fact I'll fail. It's beautiful on Series X though – 4K and 120fps. It's magic. I've gotten to the point now where I can really see and feel the difference between 60 and 120, hopefully I don't get spoiled…

I had a quick look at this and it's really odd having put 100+ hours into Switch version to suddenly having it running at four times the resolution and four times the framerate. I'm not sure I like it: the pin-sharp resolution kind of shows up the graphics a bit. I think it's better left as a very impressive Switch game rather than a mediocre-looking Xbox game.

Still a great game though, you know you can jump straight into the Hub quests without having to bother with the tediously easy Village ones?

I have a small form factor PC connected to the TV and run Gamepass (and Steam and other stuff) on that. Effectively an Xbox, in a PC shell.

I'm very tempted to do something like this, mainly for Indies rather than big budget 4k 120fps stuff. I have no idea what sort of thing I'd want in terms of specs though - would something like this do? Or can I do better/cheaper/etc?

Vega 10 graphics will be pretty underpowered for anything other than very basic titles. For that price you'd be far better just buying an Xbox Series X. I'm not convinced at the value proposition of these small form factor TV boxes for much more than very basic usage - I'd be tempted to say your absolute best bet in this price range would be a Steam Deck and a dock in terms of size usability and power.

My TV PC is a MicroATX small form factor case, with a Ryzen 5800x and 1080 GTX (plus 16gb RAM and a selection of drives). The 1080 needed to be partially disassembled to get it in…. My actual main gaming PC sits in the same room, so if I was in any way fiscally responsible I'd have just connected that to the TV but I quite often spend time in France so I like to have a small portable desktop I can lift out and transport.

The CPU is liquid cooled to try to keep noise to a minimum and the GPU vents directly out of the case. The 1080 isn't particularly powerful, but twinned with a 5800x it makes for a decent 1080p machine (I run modern titles at 60fps 1080p and older titles at 4k). For emulation it comfortably runs Yuzu with most major titles running at 60fps no issues. For control I have a bluetooth all in one keyboard and mouse pad I can balance on my lap for navigating Windows 11 and then an Xbox controller for playing games (I don't play anything mouse keyboard related on it). I might swap out the 1080 for a 30 series card at some point for some hot DLSS action, but as it is the machine is it's pretty good.

And yes, I live by myself :D

Thanks cav, really helpful. I have a Series S, so no point getting an X (for now). What I really want is to be able to play non-console indies on the telly of an evening (family allowing). My previous assessment had been that a Deck/Dock combo would be a good option, I think I'll go back to that.

Play

Hi Fi Rush

Oh boy, they really have something special here. I've only put around 2 hours into this so far, but I'm loving it. Its funny seeing how everyone one is describing this. I'm hearing Jet Set Radio, DMC, Viewtiful Joe, Necrodancer and Sun Set Overdrive so far. 😆 My mum is having my baby over night so I'll have so much time to myself and all I can think about is bashing this all night, can't wait.

Maybe rethink the mum sentence as I had to read it three times.

Okay it wasn't just me.

😂 Oops.🤦

I mean, maybe he's from the West Country?

Would you like it if it wasn't so in your face?

I agree the festival schtick is genuinely awful, but the core driving is some of my favourite ever.

I haven't played 5 yet as still got loads to do in 4, but that is the issue I have with that and 3, it doesn't help that they insist on calling me by my full name too which I hate.

Additional PLAY:

Cheap Xbox games - Grabbed codes for KeyWe and The Witness from eneba yesterday, €10 for the pair. Considering The Witness is never discounted, I'll take that as I've had a hankering to replay (and finally finish) it for a while KeyWe looked like a fun co-op game for me and the missus when it was announced, so keen to try that soon.

Semi-BIN:
KeyWe - In co-op with my partner, anyway. It goes from 'smooth working together' to 'Shit, what's going on, which kiwi am I, where's the sticker gone, fuck I've fallen off the stage' panic bullshit in the space of five levels, and she doesn't do well with such things at all. Not going to make her play something she's not enjoying, so away it goes. It does have a solo mode so I may try to come back to it but really, it's incredibly unbalanced and based more on creating stress through stupid mechanics than challenge… so maybe not.

Installed HiFi Rush on my laptop and with a USB connected pad and 144hz screen the latency did indeed vanish and it's brilliant and satisfying to play.

General Society opinion on Telling Lies, Her Story and Immortality (with no spoilers). I really do want to get stuck into one of them, but can't decide which.

Immortality is considered the best of the three and I thought it was incredible. YMMV but I’d definitely start there.

Yep agree. There is a clear development in ambition and scope across the three of them. The first two are good and, for the times they were made, inventive but immortality is a stunning piece of work that I think will be seen as a great leap forward.

Secret GOTY 2022 Powerwash Simulator is now out on PS5 and Switch as well as Xbox/PC, and has a new free DLC mini-campaign on all platforms where you get to clean Lara Croft’s mansion. So I’m playing that, again.

I've been playing Powerwash Sim as a break from studying. It's good to play while listening to podcasts too.

I find it very relaxing. It’s absorbing in the same kind of way a jigsaw puzzle is, it gives you the same sort of satisfaction of doing something intricate without requiring much actual thought.