PWB November

Play
Nintendo! I'm about 580-odd moons into Mario Odyssey and not bored yet. I have also been playing Bowser's Inside Story on my DS which is wonderfully lightweight for chilling out with in the evening.

Want
I realised I still want a mini SNES when I saw one in Sainsbury's the other day. I want to play Secret of Mana with my kids.

Bin
Dogs. particularly the fluffy bundle of canine cuddles which just arrived in my home. It's a lovely dog. I do not have the time to look after it. WHO COULD HAVE KNOWN THIS WOULD HAPPEN IF WE GOT A DOG. ffs

Play

Finally back on the AAA train with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which is actually pretty great! I've killed a bunch of overly-aggressive wolves, a lot of people (and the odd goat), and found a necklace in the sea that turned out to be a quest item for a sideplot I hadn't discovered at the time. I've noticed that I'm weirdly unimpressed with the visuals - it's very close to the uncanny valley – mostly in terms of the animations and behaviours rather than the look, to be fair – and Kassandra' dead-eyed expression outside of cutscenes has made me think better of several attempted photo mode shots.

I also dropped into Elite Dangerous instead last night, "just to check out the beta" for the new update, but when it crashed out to desktop as soon as I left the station I was in I went into the release version instead and spent a couple of hours flying around to upgrade my FSD. Didn't even get to try out the new discovery scanning mechanics that are promising to totally revamp the exploration portion of the game, so that's high on the agenda for this evening.

Want

More time to play the games I've already got - this whole "having to work for a living" thing has gone on long enough, thank you. I'm going to have to book a day off at some point - although then I inevitably don't get anything done because I'm worried that I've picked the lesser option somehow, and end up rewatching some semi-obscure movie that I've already seen thirty times.

I would like a new HOTAS for Elite now that I'm spending more time flying again - got my eye on this one, following positive reports from the subreddit, but that price tag is a bit much for an impulse buy. Must cost a pound for every button on the thing, because it bristles with inputs. It has five hat switches! I can't tell if the thought of re-binding all my inputs is exciting or terrifying.

Bin

I tried to jump back into Octopath Traveller the other week to stave off cravings for a new Dragon Quest XI-flavoured JRPG, and it did nothing for me. Its muddy visuals, low-stakes story and boring characters are too much for its (great) battle system to shoulder, so I doubt I'll be back.

Bloodaxe Jnr is thinking of buying Elite and a flight stick, can you recommend a good budget option?

I can't tell if the thought of re-binding all my inputs is exciting or terrifying.

This is the main reason I've not managed to get back into Elite Dangerous, though I keep promising myself I will - the last couple of times I've tried, I've spent over an hour going in and out of the options menu binding different controls to the flight stick, never quite got a setup I'm completely happy with, turned it off and not gone back to it. Then repeated the process a few months later. I almost wish I'd stuck with my controller, where at least I managed to configure it pretty well, though there's no doubt that the stick adds a lot.

The other reason I've not got back into it is that, like No Man's Sky, there always seems to be a big update just around the corner so I'm always promising myself I'll wait for that and then it'll be a good time to jump back in. Maybe the conclusion of the Beyond sequence is what I've been waiting for. My space-obsessed young'un doesn't even know about this game and he's going to go absolutely nuts when he sees it.

Bloodaxe Jnr is thinking of buying Elite and a flight stick, can you recommend a good budget option?

I've been using the embarrassingly-named Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X, which I managed to get for £30 on Amazon - though nowadays it looks like you're going to pay around £50, which I'm not sure it's worth. It's chunky and has lots of buttons, but it does lack a bit of heft and after using it for a couple of years (on and off) there are some weird creaks from the plastic when I use the twist yaw. Our toddler's enthusiasm for slamming the throttle back and forward has also taken its toll, with the centre-position no longer zeroing out correctly.

the last couple of times I've tried, I've spent over an hour going in and out of the options menu binding different controls to the flight stick, never quite got a setup I'm completely happy with, turned it off and not gone back to it

The trick, I've found, is to get the basic flight controls mapped and familar, then add other bits as you need them. Flight controls, weapons and menu navigation are the essentials, everything else is just convenience.

(I tried to map the controls for the new exploration stuff earlier, though, and just got lost. It's an entire overhaul of the way you scan for planets and the like, and I couldn't figure out any of it in practice, though I did skim through the tutorial quite quick.)

Play
I'm just going back to stuff at the moment - Overwatch, for one (albeit on PC this time), and I lost a couple of hours to Sea of Thieves tonight for the first time in I can't remember how long, showing one of the OW crew the (actual) ropes. We did a bit of everything - started a Gold Hoarders voyage as a simple intro, then found a 4-captain Order of Souls bounty in a barrel, and a Merchant Alliance gunpowder delivery washed up on a beach. Saw one other ship, but they thankfully ignored us. It might not be much of a "game", per se, but Sea of Thieves is still one of the best places to just remote-hang out (and do stupid shit like race rowboats between islands).

Want
I've preordered Hitman 2, which I'm telling myself is it for the rest of the year (for myself, at least; anything else will have to be gifted). RDR2 looks fascinating, but it's just too big for me to get anything like value out of at the moment.

Bin
I've done the platinum for Spider-Man, and reviews for the first DLC chunk aren't enthusiastic enough to make it a must-have, so I'm done - pending reviews of the remaining DLC, and a season pass price cut, at least.

PLAY
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Of course I'm playing this. It's easier than I remember it being; I'm already nearly 50% done with the first map, and I'm making mincemeat of pretty much anything I meet. Only the Clock Tower still gives me trouble because of those damn Medusa Heads that weave all over the place, but I'll keep plugging away… going for the full 200.6%, naturally.

2064: Read Only Memories - Was free on PS+. Started it the other night. Bit bored already. But hey, I should be able to plug through for the platinum in short enough order.

WANT
Better BAFTA games - BAFTA voting is live and currently, there's not much of interest on there. More games are being processed all the time though, so God of War and Spider-Man have to get on there at some point…

Danganronpa 3 - Not a proper want, because I have it already, but I want the time to go back to it. Aiming to do that once I'm done with Castlevania.

BIN
Waiting - I'm stuck in limbo. Haven't moved to Sweden yet, haven't been told if Nintendo want me or not yet (I'm expecting not), got a few other irons in the fire that might come to something. I just want to be in my own place somewhere, getting on with things, but I can't. Rubbish.

Didn't even get to try out the new discovery scanning mechanics that are promising to totally revamp the exploration portion of [Elite Dangerous], so that's high on the agenda for this evening.

Managed to set up my controls and give this a shot over lunch - it's a little overwhelming compared to the old HONK mechanic, but much more engaging as well. It should make exploration more profitable, and based on last night's stream it will fold into the mining mechanics in a way that might make me actually give that a shot, for the first time.

Play

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. Still playing this and still loving it. Easily the best game in the series for me and I've played them ALL. Unlike aniki I think it's a pretty spectacular-looking game, too, though I think the HDR is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this regard - it's as good as I've ever seen - so it's very much the scenery rather than the characters that impress (though they're not bad either). I'm getting close to level cap, but still some way from the end of any of the three main story threads, so I've got a fair old way to go yet.

Pokemon: Ultra Moon. Still dipping into this from time to time. It's kind of fun in a low-key sort of way - the series has changed a lot and it's much more child-oriented than it used to be, so the level of challenge is very low and it mostly just sort of plays itself, but it's very relaxing.

Want

A couple of VR games: Astro-Bot Rescue Mission and Tetris Effect both look good.

I've decided I'm not too fussed about RDR2. Partly it's open world fatigue (I'm going to need to play something completely different after I finally emerge from AC Odyssey), partly it's the various stories about poor image quality and broken HDR on the PS4 Pro version, but mostly it's just the fact I've remembered that I don't really get on with Rockstar games all that much. I respect them for what they do, but they always frustrate me in a variety of different ways and I'm sure this will be the same.

I'm getting the urge to give Diablo III another go. I'm not sure I ever got past the first chapter of the story mode. And aniki's got me eyeing up Elite Dangerous again.

Super Smash Bros: Ultimate can't come quickly enough.

Bin

Can't think of anything right now. I haven't been playing Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate for a while but it's a dip-in/dip-out sort of game that'll probably last me years.

Halloween's over at least, thank god. Some kid came to my door with a cardboard box on his head the other day, talk about low-effort trick-or-treating. If you want to extort Haribo from me you're going to have to try harder than that, buddy.

Play - Dark Souls on Switch and Seven Mansions on Dreamcast, this has just been released with a fan translation and seems to be a generic style survival game but enjoyed what I played so want to play more. Also back into Super MARIO Kart on the snes as signed up for the rankings site they have for it and really enjoying learning the tracks and trying to get better as can practise in little short Windows.

Want - Still sitting out new games although very interested in Diablo 3.

Bin - Back at work so cancelled Xbox Games Pass.

Play

Red Dead Redemption 2 - Not really sure what to say about this, it's a well made game to be sure and I will enjoy playing it through to completion but I dunno, can't really think of anything to gush about other than I like the shooty bang bang. Not a whole lot of the side activities make me wanna stop doing the story, and it's not like they're unfun (hunting aside, maybe) I just feel like 'why?'.

Soul Calibur 6 - And yet I haven't played this as much as RDR2 because reasons, but so far this is amazing and I dunno' if Namco even KNOW how to make an unfun fighting game. It's like a kinda' more accessible Tekken in terms of difficulty but I think it also isn't too mash friendly and the nature of the combat (long ass ranged weapons and ring outs galore) makes this most salt inducing fighting game imo. And I can't comment on the single player stuff because I literally don't give a shit about any of that.

Deltarune - A free, mini-game/demo sorta' kinda' sequel to Undertale, it's short but still really full of the humour, gameplay and heart that made Undertale pretty much the best RPG. What other RPG lets you succeed in fights by flirting so badly they feel awkward and leave the fight entirely? Music is amazing.

I bought a game with a kinda' long title I forget but it's called The Missing something something, a new SWERY game (my first SWERY game too) and from thesounds of it, it's a puzzle platformer where the main character (a girl looking for her friend/girlfriend) is immortal and has to brutally dismember herself to solve puzzles, like weighing a switch down with her legs after cutting herself in half with a circular saw or set herself on fire to light a dark room up. It sounds grim but I hear it's not torture porn (although maybe still too much for some?) and that there's a really nice message at the heart of the game's story.

Want

Smash Ultimate - This is going to be a lot of fun. Ridiculous amounts of content, fanservice. The trailer instantly made me wanna' save the world as soul survivor Kirby so I guess I care about the single player stuff here….for now.

Dunno, kinda' wishing I got AssCreed Odyssey instead of Red Dead, assuming the naval combat is as good as Black Flag's I'd probably have more fun than RDR2 on it for that alone. D:

I hadn't spotted that the Naval stuff was back. I haven't played one of there games since Black Flag mainly as thought that was the best they have done and was disappointed they seemed to move away from it.

The naval combat is a relatively small part of AC Odyssey - mainly because Spartan naval technology was considerably simpler than in the Golden Age of Pirates. You’ve got arrows and javelins but not much else and most battles are resolved by ramming. There isn’t the range of options you got in Black Flag. It’s still fun and is a great way of navigating the game world but it’s not the focus of the game this time around.

The best AC naval combat is in Rogue, which recently got a remaster and is well worth a look if you liked Black Flag.

Honestly the ship stuff in this just makes me wish I was playing Sea of Thieves instead…

Cheers wasn't even aware Rogue was a thing, will check that out for sure. I liked Sea of thieves sailing and fighting but felt like it was a bit good mechanics and no actual direction. I'd like a single player story version SID Meiers using that engine.

I was listening to the Eurogamer podcast the other day, talking about Red Dead Redemption and how much better it, and other open-world games, get when the story's done and you can just wander around interacting with the systems at your own pace and with your own direction, but that's exactly what Sea of Thieves offers out of the gate and it got slaughtered for it.

See also No Man's Sky.

I think you need a balance of both, really, otherwise the game can quickly feel pointless. An open world needs a strong story to enable the world to shine.

I tried playing No Man's Sky again the other week and after two hours of "go here, collect six of these, now go here, collect ten of these, now go here, build this" I was utterly fed up. It was like spending an afternoon trudging back and forth to B&Q in the rain. I got off the planet, realised I didn't care how many more millions of planets there were featuring yet more crap to collect, and turned it off, probably never to return.

Just another reason why Breath of the Wild was so amazing, you can end the story and get to that post-game period pretty much whenever you want, it's like Assassin's Creed saying 5 hours in 'If you just want to sail the Caribbean, the MacGuffin is being guarded by the final boss over here btw'. It's a simple story, perhaps too simple if you liked how much of it was in OOT or something but you get the motivation for the story early on and I think it's good that it doesn't ever really intrude. Also helps that pretty much nothing in the game was a chore or felt like a necessary evil to get to the fun parts imo.

Judging from the way open world games like Red Dead are today, it still feels kinda' ahead of it's time almost 2 years on, all the immersion in the world doesn't mean shit in the context of being a fun, open world for RDR2 if you ask me (not that anyone brought immersion up). If anything, it hurts it since that's partly why it's so sucky to do free-roaming crime in that game right now.

Was this a stealth RDR2/BOTW whine/shill post? Maybe.

I think you need a balance of both, really, otherwise the game can quickly feel pointless. An open world needs a strong story to enable the world to shine.

I think it depends on the nature of the world. God knows Sea of Thieves isn't for everyone, but I really enjoy just getting around the place, and hanging out and talking with whichever of my friends I'm there with. A narrative wouldn't improve something like Sea of Thieves - it'd just give it an ending, after which many people just wouldn't be compelled to return. It might mean a smaller community, but I think ultimately it's a more dedicated one, and one that won't wane as much - or as quickly - as a game where the story is a large part of the reason to be playing it.

On the other hand, No Man's Sky. There is a story - or rather, a mythology - to the universe, but the procedural and ultimately kind of random nature of discovering it means that it often just feels frustrating, like you're being drip-fed portentous, but obscure and vague, lore about a bunch of stuff that doesn't really tie into anything you as the player are doing.

I think you just need a story that fits the world and the game you're building.

Speaking of mostly-aimless wandering in offputting game systems, I've bought that new flight stick for Elite, having poured a lot of hours into the same three-system jump loop for the last couple of weeks to farm as many credits out of tourists as possible before the 3.3 update inevitably changes the background sim enough to render this particular cash cow worthless again.

I've just broken 400 million credits (over 115 million of those were earned tonight, while half-watching Pacific Rim), which is enough to cover the rebuy of my current ship - my most expensive by a considerable distance - more than a hundred times over. I've literally no idea what to spend it on.

As a happy side effect, the money earned in this endeavour also counts towards my exploration rating, so I'm almost halfway to Elite there - my first maxed-out rank! By a happy coincidence, the station has an Imperial-affiliated faction which I've been doing missions for, so my ranking there is also going up. Maybe I'll buy an Imperial Cutter that I won't be able to adequately outfit.

The new stick is pretty great, though - it's got a frankly ridiculous number of buttons (sixteen plus a hat and throttle on the three-axis stick alone; I've got a post-it on the desk to remind me what they all do), though I'd happily replace a couple of the three hat switches on the throttle (which also has five axes, three buttons and a rocker switch) for simple buttons to use as modifier keys instead.

I've just broken 400 million credits… I've literally no idea what to spend it on.

I'm gonna spend those credits on one of these:

The Mamba? Sounds like a sex toy.

Judging by the overexcited reaction on Reddit, some people seem to think it is a sex toy.

Play update: one level of Hitman 2 down. Didn't manage to Silent Assassin it (poisoned the wrong glass), but did manage Suit Only, and wasn't detected, so apparently I still have some idea what I'm doing.

It's more Hitman.

I love it.

It's also an insane amount of stuff to (re)do, as it imports pretty much everything from Hitman 2016, but updated with all the new mechanics and improvements. The briefcase is back, and it's going to Paris! And Sapienza. And Marrakesh, and…

The first Elusive Target launches in 10 days: Sean Bean, "The Undying".

I spent some time this afternoon trying to unlock some advanced stuff for my ships (Guardian module blueprints) and it was easily the most stressful thing Elite Dangerous has ever put me through.

For me, Elite is characterised by its lack of pressure - I run trade routes; ship passengers back and forth; spend weeks "in the black", scanning for exploration data. I avoid combat as much as humanly possible, and my time driving the surface vehicles has mostly been across open plains looking for outcrops to mine for engineering materials.

This activity requires piloting an SRV in a cluttered, partially-enclosed set of ruins (on top of a mesa, to boot, so going off the side is a constant risk). While doing this precision driving - a task for which the SRV is not suited, due to its cockpit position and lousy turning circle - you have a hard time limit in which to find specific obelisks in among dozens of others, which your scanners cannot differentiate. And the site also spawns drones which can fire plasma bursts capable of capsizing your SRV or pushing it into spaces that are very difficult to get out of.

It took me three attempts over a total of about two and a half hours to get one blueprint; there are six in total. (Plus the weapon ones, though since I'm not involving myself with the Thargoids that's a low priority for me.)

At least I now know what I'm doing, more or less - picking up a second blueprint (which means I can get the FSD and shield upgrades, the two I'm actually interested int) should be the last time I need to run through this tedious gauntlet.

Had a brief foray into Ghost Mode, Hitman 2's 1v1 multiplayer mode. Both players start in the same location, and a target appears at a random place in the map. An unseen kill gets you a point, and your opponent has 20 seconds to make the kill before the next target is assigned. First to 5 points wins.

I don't know the Miami map very well yet, so there was a lot of stumbling into areas I wasn't meant to be in, and more than a few deaths*; by the time we were both getting the hang of things, though, the game bugged out and didn't spawn a target.

I was 3-2 up, though, so I totally won.

*when you die, you respawn somewhere else, but nothing resets - NPCs remember you, so if you go into the same area with the same disguise, it's gonna mean another gunfight.

Additional PLAY:

OnRush - Picked it up in the sale for a fraction of what Codemasters was originally selling it for. It's… okay? I guess. Makes little sense as a proper racing game, a lot of the mechanics don't seem to work as well as they appear to on paper and it's very pretentious in its presentation. But for a tenner? It's okay. Certainly not terrible. It's not Burnout Paradise, but it's not shit either. So, that's fine.

Still working on my Super Mario Kart times. The site I signed up to updates on Mondays and have jumped to 503rd on the Pal rankings. And improved either my best lap or total times on another 8 courses last night.

Additional PLAY:

OnRush - Picked it up in the sale for a fraction of what Codemasters was originally selling it for. It's… okay? I guess. Makes little sense as a proper racing game, a lot of the mechanics don't seem to work as well as they appear to on paper and it's very pretentious in its presentation. But for a tenner? It's okay. Certainly not terrible. It's not Burnout Paradise, but it's not shit either. So, that's fine.

Update: Bored of this now. Not playing it with others appears to have been an afterthought for the devs, as the game's pretty boring on your own. It doesn't help that the AI is annoyingly good (you can basically sit back and let it do all the work since all the races are objective-based) and violence doesn't work nearly as well as the devs thought it did. What's the point of having motorbikes in a game where the objective is to take out your opponents, if the opponents are all driving fucking Hummers? Stupid.

Play: GTA V.
I'm 50% of the way through according to the save file and I've sunk about 30 hours into the game. On PS3 I was just shy of 60 hours and got to 80% before I stopped playing. Mainly finding it amazing how I can fire it on not be all that enthusiastic and then still be there 4 hours later. It's just quite fun and tends to get to a point where I find something fun to do and load a save over and over for an hour just dicking about. This mainly involves trying to steal a jet.

More Elite - Spent this evening engineering my DBX for maximum jump range - it's now got the resilience of a paper bag, but it goes far and it goes fast and it's just a lot of fun to throw around. Looking forward to the exploration changes leaving beta so I can take it out into the black again - especially now that I've got my SRV controls set up properly.

Before that, I'm going to go back to the taxi run and see if I can break a billion while this cash cow keeps paying out - hopefully get my Elite rank in exploration while I'm at it, just so I can put the decals onto the DBX.

To celebrate breaking a billion credits in Elite, I went out and replaced my Alliance Chieftain with an Alliance Challenger - broadly the same ship (though I miss the forward nacelles), but with more armour and better hardpoints (although the internals aren't quite as good). Considering it's my "combat" ship (I use it for PowerPlay, which means PvP interdictions, which means I need something that can take an absolute kicking while my FSD recharges and I can jump away), the beefier the better, though I've got to fly it a few dozen systems over to engineer its shields for even more padding.

I'm going to have to beef up the power plant to put any more guns on it, though.

Additional PLAY

Sky Force Anniversary - Started this on Vita, as I've had it there for ages. It's really good! A basic vertical 1942 rip-off, for sure, but still good. Plugging away when I have a moment.

Gal-Gun - For my sins. I love the Virtua Cop stylings. I'm not a fan of the weeb nonsense. But hey, it's something to do.

Gal-Gun - … I'm not a fan of the weeb nonsense

If only something - anything - about the game's cover, screenshots, marketing or title could have given you some warning.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I knew what it was. I got sent a free code by a friend at PQube when it was released, and it's been sitting on my PS4 ever since - I could never play it at home, the kids would have seen. Given it's a relatively easy Platinum, I'm just ploughing through it for the trophies before I delete it.

Like I said, the gameplay underneath is actually really solid. It's a very good game. It's just what it's dressed up in that's not my taste.

Play: I finally bought a Switch! Traded in the 3DS (thanks Gar it lasted me well) and a long list of other electronics in the house and got £205 of credit. So walked out of CEX with a Switch, Mario Odyssey and Dark souls.

Want : Fire Emblem, R-Type and a big memory card.

Bin: CEX wouldn’t take my boxed Vita as the serial number didn’t match the box. The box with the CEX price sticker from when I bought it from them however many years ago.

I want Catastronauts, which I didn't realise was out already. It's FTL meets Overcooked, and if that doesn't excite you, you're dead inside.

I want Catastronauts, which I didn't realise was out already. It's FTL meets Overcooked, and if that doesn't excite you, you're dead inside.

On Steam?

No idea if it's on Steam, but I'd be after it on PSN, ideally, for maximum couch.

Yooo, finished 'The Missing: JJ Macfield and The Island of Memories'. Just short enough that the puzzles don't outstay their welcome, the dismemberment thing is 'cool' but they're not inventive enough to last a long time. Anyway, this game is more than the puzzles, the game starts off with the message 'This game is made with the belief that no one is wrong for being what they are' and the tone…no, existence of the game is heavily focused on that sentiment. Even the fact that you hurt yourself to solve puzzles is related to this. I think it's just enough well written (the texts you read from a concerned mother, a good friend, a proffessor..etc are all feel kinda natural or at least not cringey to me.) that I think the story holds up.

Also, this is my first SWERY game, so this is my first taste of his David Lynch inspired games. It's very obvious here too, the weird distorted speech, talking Mooses in white doctor coats saying weird stuff that makes sense in context, the fact that the heroine of the story can roll her severed head through a bowling lane and regenerate on the other side. I love David Lynch so I loved all that stuff.

Overall I really like this game, even though as a puzzle game it's not as clever as it could be with a premise like that, or rather it runs out of creativity a little…but it ends quickly and that's good.

EDIT - Oh yeah, I also finished Bulletstorm on PS4. It's a fun game but I think some of the weapons are kinda ass and I think even the most imaginative player will see themselves repeating kills a lot…although it is also playable as a FPS and it's not a terrible one of those either. It's very juvenile in its humour and gameplay, I laughed hard at some of the lines not gonna' lie. Deleted it asap because I ain't going back even if you can replay the game for score and every weapon equipped at once.

New Play, Free to Play Intergalactic Space Ninja game Warframe dropped on the Switch the other day and having really enjoyed the PS4 version but stopped playing til' it updated around my character so much I didn't know what I was doing anymore, I wanted an excuse to start over. (You have to delete your account or something silly to do so on PS4).

It's pretty janky as ever, yet I find the guns quite satisfying, better than some actual TPS. That's not what this game is about though, it's about doing missions that all look very similar in deign as a genuinely well designed (both aesthetically and mechanically) Warframe. You choose from 1 of 3 and then set out on the Galaxy to do missions, you can get many, many, MANY parts along the way that let you build more Warframes and weapons and you also get to upgrade your Warframe and weapons with cards dropped on missions, it's a deep game.

One Warframe can summon a snow globe like shield of ice that you can fire out of but not into, this makes it good for horde modes. Another Warframe can mind control enemies to fight for you or simply panic. Another Warframe can go invisible and stealth everything, another can banish friend or foe to an alt dimension, another can heal, another can…I could be here a while, they're the main part of the game and they're sick.

But like I say, it can be pretty janky, the parkour isn't exactly Assassin's Creed and you can tell it's a F2P game but it's one of the most impressive F2P games I've seen in terms of how far it's come. It's just recently dropped an update with it's second free roam map that changes how the entire game plays in a sense.

TL;DR - The Missing is pretty good TBH

Additional BUY:

I bought an Xbox One S yesterday in the Black Friday discounting. I don't know why. I just looked at my bank balance, looked at the price and thought 'Yeah, go on then'. Got the one that comes with Sea of Thieves, so that's nice. Maybe this means I might actually play Rock Band 4 now, given I own it but didn't have the console to play it on (all my DLC was on 360, so it had to be the XBO version or I'd have to buy it all over again). Maybe.

So now, every time you want a new game you have to buy a new console?

Martanomics is complicated.

PLAY

Super Paper Mario! I just found this in CEX for £6. I've been wanting to buy it again since I re-bought the Wii two or three years ago because I remember loving it when it came out. I don't remember ever talking about it here in the Society though, did anyone else play it?

Anyway, I just put it on for half an hour to see if it is as good as I remember and I wasn't disappointed. Simple,classic 2D platforming mixed with 3D platforming puzzles, oddball cartoon humour and the best cubist trees in any video I can think of.

I guess Fez did a similar thing at a similar time, and there was the PSP game where you play though some guys dreams while he's getting hypnotherapy. I had completely forgotten about both of those until right now. Probably because neither of them was actually any fun.

I don't remember ever talking about it here in the Society though, did anyone else play it?

Yeah, I did… I think I had to review it. It's okay. It's definitely nowhere near as good as Thousand Year Door on the GameCube, but it's okay. Just don't go from there to the 3DS one (Sticker Star, I think), because that's not great.*

• Can't say it's shit, because it's a Nintendo first-party title and none of those are shit. But it's definitely on the lower end of the quality spectrum compared to previous games in the series.

I borrowed Thousand Year Door off of Garwoofoo with every intention of playing it but for whatever reason I didn't get far. I really should give it a proper play someday, I'll see if I can find a cheapish one on eBay. Wish me luck.

PLAY

Super Paper Mario! I just found this in CEX for £6. I've been wanting to buy it again since I re-bought the Wii two or three years ago because I remember loving it when it came out. I don't remember ever talking about it here in the Society though, did anyone else play it?

Anyway, I just put it on for half an hour to see if it is as good as I remember and I wasn't disappointed. Simple,classic 2D platforming mixed with 3D platforming puzzles, oddball cartoon humour and the best cubist trees in any video I can think of.

I guess Fez did a similar thing at a similar time, and there was the PSP game where you play though some guys dreams while he's getting hypnotherapy. I had completely forgotten about both of those until right now. Probably because neither of them was actually any fun.

Final Fantasy VIII?

Seriously, any idea what that was called?
sounds interesting.

Found it! Crush.

Play:
Anyone else revisited Bulletstorm?

Still entertaining, even though the rough edges are starting to show.

Additional bin: I'm on a train to London for the office Christmas party, which I don't really want to go to but there's a bunch of new people on the team that I've not met IRL yet and I'm one of the more senior engineers so I feel obliged to show my face even though I'm starting to come down with something and I'll be traveling for longer than I'll actually be in London. I'll probably enjoy it - I always do, with these things - but it's tough to find the enthusiasm when you're sitting on a Dundee train platform at 0730.