Is [Octopath Traveller] any good?
It suffers from having eight interconnecting but ultimately separate plotlines, which can be played in any order – ultimately this means none of them really goes anywhere. They all follow a very similar arc as well, so it's very repetitive and doesn't build to any sort of climactic finale.
It looks pretty great (although would it have killed them to add some colour?!) and the battle system is solid, but it definitely outstays its welcome.
But for "free" on GamePass, it's probably worth a look.
In a shocking twist I didn't like this at all in the end and it's one of the very very few games I've dropped midway through. The battle system broke me moreso than the other problems the game has, longest random battles ever if you dont have the right person at the time and it was so tiresome to see every boss roll out wih like, 8 shield and also with 2 minions rocking 4 shields too.
But I mean, besides me and Aniki I've seen nothing but love from the rest of the world over this game and I am in the minority for this. Still think the presenttion is carrying it HARD.
The battle system broke me moreso than the other problems the game has, longest random battles ever if you dont have the right person at the time and it was so tiresome to see every boss roll out wih like, 8 shield and also with 2 minions rocking 4 shields too.
Yeah, this was frustrating – I can't remember if you could swap out party members mid-battle, but I have a feeling you couldn't?
Having eight characters to juggle also meant you had to do a bunch of grinding with different party combinations just to make sure your polearm guy wasn't woefully under-levelled when you needed him to break the shield on a boss.
I think that when you ask if a game is any good or not, and the two forum members who've played it immediately start comparing notes on what the game's most annoying features were, it pretty much means you've got your answer.
Well, literally everyone else who played it likes it to be fair. Because it's 'gorgeous and it's got the job system and FF tactics dialogue!!!!'. There's some cool stuff in there, like each character has a unique action they can do, Primose can attract pretty much every npc into being a party member, Olberic can challenge any npc to a duel or someone else can steal overpowered gear from npc…so you can do some cool stuff depending on route choices.
But man, that battle system though. Reminds me of Persona's elemental weakness based system but you have to hit that weakness several times to get anywhere.
Having eight characters to juggle also meant you had to do a bunch of grinding with different party combinations just to make sure your polearm guy wasn't woefully under-levelled when you needed him to break the shield on a boss.
I hear this is super apparent when going for the True Final Boss who by all accounts is super fucking hard, I wasn't about to crawl over broken glass for 70 hours to hit a brick wall.
I think that when you ask if a game is any good or not, and the two forum members who've played it immediately start comparing notes on what the game's most annoying features were, it pretty much means you've got your answer.
I really wanted to like this, I really really tried. I loved the demo (besides something I forgot to mention, the OBSCENELY long cutscenes) but a it turns out the structure of that demo is the structure of the game 'chapter start - village - dungeon - boss and minions' or something like that x 4 or 5 for each of the 8 characters. I suppose in itself this isn't a huge crime but it wore me down. And some of them are way more interesting than others.
I still haven't played the demo for Project Glockenspiel Calculator.
It annoyed me within 30 minutes when I tried the demo.
Anyone tried Outriders?
It's the very definition of generic, but I can't stop playing. The level design, characters, story and gameplay are all straight out of a double-A Xbox 360 game. But the powers are fun, the loot is enjoyable, and it keeps throwing both at me.
I can't in good conscience recommend it, because I'm fully aware it's a bit naff. But I like it.
(If you do give it a go burn through the prologue, and skip all the cutscenes. You get your powers about 30 minutes in.)
Yeah I tried the demo on steam. Seems fun even if it is unrelentingly stupid.
I just played the prologue.
Thanks, I hate it.
Yeah you have to get past that bit. It's maybe the worst thing I've played in a long time, and also the most poorly written.
Well, I was only doing it because earning one achievement in the game nets 250 reward points, and completing the prologue gives you one. Outside of repeating the process on my partner's behalf, it's getting uninstalled pretty quickly. Really not my bag at all.
Rain On Your Parade: it’s a beautiful day in the village and you are a horrible cloud.
Actually this is kind of 50% Goose Game, 50% Donut County - it doesn’t quite have the dark humour of either but there’s fun to be had in soaking wedding guests, pissing down on a school or soaking up petrol to set fire to a kid’s birthday presents. Plus you can draw your own face on your cloud. Recommended for a bit of silly, lightweight fun.
I played this and hated it because it's so rough around the edges. Oh well.
Maneater looks like the best 7/10 game for a while. A slightly janky but very fun Killer Shark simulator. I spent half an hour last night eating people on a beach while cackling madly.
Maneater is silly fun, I played it through on PS4. Gets a little repetitive and the early going is a bit slow (you start small, so a lot of things are threats) but once you get a few upgrades, it's absolutely ridiculous. Worth a play since it's on GP, fo' sho'.
I'd never even heard of it till it landed on Game Pass.
It was one of the (PS5-only) freebies on PS+ as well, so I have it downloaded too now, might give it a try at the weekend.
Xbox cloud streaming is now available to everyone with a Game Pass Ultimate subscription, and works on Android, iOS and PC. Go to xbox.com/play to give it a whirl.
I'd always quietly assumed that modern (PS2 onwards) Need for Speed games were shit, but Hot Pursuit is brilliant. I had no idea.
For the equally unaware, the series was given to Criterion after a few boring, neon-glow flops, and they basically made the sequel to Burnout 3 we never got.
It's that rarest of things these days - a racing game without any extraneous nonsense. No open world. No XP. No story. You just pick a track (and they're all bloody gorgeous) and race.
They've perfectly captured Need for Speed's heritage (both its sweeping mountain passes and weird neon phase), and sprinkled in a healthy dose of takedowns. It's just wonderful, and where I wish Criterion had taken Burnout instead of bollocking about with Paradise.
Series X folk, you have to enable the hilariously named 'Maximum Graphics' mode to get the best out of it.
If I remember correctly, my favourite is the other Criterion one: Most Wanted. At least, I think it's that one. The one that opens with the majestic cinematic overlayed with a Muse track that I forget the name of. That game is phenomenal.
I’d always assumed they were all rubbish. I’ll have to check that out.
We've found the three people in the world who didn't know Hot Pursuit was one of the best multiplayer driving games ever made. What are the chances.
Most Wanted is also decent, even now, though it is essentially Burnout Paradise with a slightly soulless skin. NFS: The Run is the only other one that isn't shit (and that's more weird than good).
I’d always assumed they were all rubbish. I’ll have to check that out.
For some reason, all of the 'working' NFS games are on EA Pass for PC, but not all of them are marked for console. Most Wanted is PC only. Weird.
I do remember having one gripe with it, but it's a silly one. I played MW to death on 360 and did everything - you need an EA account to play, so I linked mine. Then for some reason, I ended up having it on PS4 and though I'd play through it again. Booted it up, linked my EA account… and the game went 'Oh, you've already finished this game, let's unlock everything immediately even though you only just started'. I turned it off and never went back again.
Installed Hot Pursuit overnight and just played a couple of races.
Yeaaaaaaah, that's totally Burnout 3. Not sure the music is better, but whatever. It's a very pretty game (I'm on Maximum). I'm in then.
Your times are in trouble, MPH. 
I liked Hot Pursuit, but the morality of the set-up is very iffy. It doesn't matter, of course - I can't understand what kind of person would be bothered by it! It did bother me though - I just don't know what kind of person that makes me. I felt bad driving those cars too fast and endangering innocent road users. If I tried to drive responsibly the police rammed me off the road anyway. Playing as the cops it just became instantly obvious that the person I was playing was one of those Trump-supporting knucklehead racist American cops who just like to kill with impunity. The two roles available are drag-racing arseholes or Trump-loving cops. I identified with the drivers of the AI traffic.
I was praying I could find a Driving Miss Daisy game out there somewhere, anywhere but alas… it's not to be.
I think you'll find the skincrawling intro from Hot Pursuit answers all of these questions Felt.
In as much as it confirms everything I thought, yes it does.
I've always found the weird contortions developers go through to justify the setting for their driving games bizarre and fascinating. The more abstract they make a driving game's setting the less distracting it is. Burnout is fine, even Burnout Paradise because it's cartoonish and doesn't try to justify anything with a narrative. Forza Horizon accidentally creates a nightmare world. There's a big car festival, whatever that is, that seems to go on forever. Everyone can just turn up and drive their cars too fast with no regard for local wildlife or the poor people who have to live in the area and try to go about their normal life with all this going on around them. Then there's a layer of obnoxious wealth and mindless consumerism smeared on top like a layer of shit on a piece of green bread. I mean, everything about Forza is wrong. Why does that director just let some random guy do incredibly dangerous stunts for his film with no mention of insurance? That film company is going to get sued into oblivion. Then he just gives you a house! It looks like a listed building, but don't let that stop you driving a Ferrari through the wall and into the kitchen. And who are these people who hail taxis and expect the driver to drive like a maniac to get them to their destination? Why are they in such a rush? There's a DJ that occasionally tells you he's heard a rumour about a car abandoned in a shed. What's that all about? Why is it okay for you to break into a shed on some farmer's land and steal his broken-down Land Rover? Every farmer in the world has a broken down Land Rover in a shed, that doesn't mean anyone can take them. Talking of farmers, how come you can drive through dry stone walls (which can never be repaired as the human race has lost the knowledge of how to construct them) and chase sheep around a field without the farmer coming and justifiably blowing your head off with a shotgun?
Then there are countless post-apocalyptic driving games where petrol has become the currency so of course everyone spends all their time racing their cars, thus pointlessly burning both the last remnants of this precious resource and their own literal money.
And of course there are the career modes on street racing or particularly rally games where the game imagines that some dick who just turns up to a rally meet in the lowest possible tier of rallying would have their own gaggle of excitable fans on social media even though they came dead last and spent several minutes trying to reverse out of a copse.
If I was involved in Forza Horizon, I would include in the game those signs that tell you how many deaths there have been on the road that month.
dry stone walls (which can never be repaired as the human race has lost the knowledge of how to construct them)
A friend of mine is a qualified dry-stone wall builder. The Dry Stone Walling Association has branches all over the UK.
I know, I know, not the point!
Walls don't have branches, that's trees you silly billy.
Matty and Hal's dry stone walling sponsor a Magic The Gathering podcast I listen to.
I was praying I could find a Driving Miss Daisy game out there somewhere, anywhere but alas… it's not to be.
The original Driver made you do thirty minutes of tedious parking manoeuvres in a car park before you were allowed to play the game (which then used none of those skills). Quality content.
I never even got past that training. Hugely frustrating.
dry stone walls (which can never be repaired as the human race has lost the knowledge of how to construct them)
A friend of mine is a qualified dry-stone wall builder.
Is this the new 'I have a girlfriend'?
I picked up PC Gamepass for 3 months (actually 4, it adds a month if you switch on reoccurring billing, which you can then switch off, odd). I mainly wanted it for a quick crack at The Ascent and also to revisit Flight Sim with the 3080.
I forgot the absolute crazy grab bag of stuff that's on there. Horizon 5 and Infinite are also a big draw for the service.
Has anyone on here played Call of The Sea? Worth a download?
I really liked Call of the Sea, it's a gentle little walking simulator with some good puzzles.
My only complaint was that it was too slow. Even the fastest movement speed is painful.
I played Hades finally yesterday, I spent the first 30 mins totally unsure why everyone liked it, then started to unlock a few more things and now I can't stop thinking about when I can next play it.
Initially I thought it was going to be like Bastion which I was one of the rare people not to like, but am finding the unravelling story/mythos (is that the right word?) really interesting so far. The gameplay whilst not as good as Diablo, is better than Enter the Gungeon (to me) and I loves both of them.
So, now they're adding Marvel's Avengers to Game Pass, we're all going to dip in and support this fine advehahahahhahaha what am I talking about, such a dead game. 
I heard the campaign was alright, so I might poke at it for that. I have discovered I really only have room for one live service game, though, so uh
Oh, there's no way I'm not going to get at least some fun out of that.
I'll play it, but I doubt I'll get far in. No time for Square-Enix's hideous take on the already filthy idea of monetisation.
Fuck that game, bring back Marvel Heroes Omega. :<
So, now they're adding Marvel's Avengers to Game Pass, we're all going to dip in and support this fine advehahahahhahaha what am I talking about, such a dead game.
It annoys me that Squeenix ditched the Deus Ex series (without finishing the story) for this turd.
I know it's an artistic choice, but I can't get past the framerate on Sable. Which is a shame, because it looks like a lovely game.
Anyone else had an issue with the jerkiness?
Anyone else had an issue with the jerkiness?
Not as much as I've had with the speeder bike physics and inconsistent climbing limitations. The animation catches me off-guard when I first fire it up, but I seem to get used to it after a few minutes.
An indie darling that gasp isn't actually all that great. Who'd have thunk it?!?
/looks at Skatebird et al
Given all these guys had was a tech demo and no actual game design doc when the trailer first appeared, I'm shocked it even got finished.
Been a bit of a run of mediocre indie games lately on Game Pass, feels like a while since the last big hitter.
I see today has brought us Mighty Goose, a really shit-looking 2D run-and-gun that was obviously hoping to ride a wave of goose-based enthusiasm that never quite materialised - or at least cannibalise some sales from Untitled Goose Game.
I'm quite enjoying Signs of the Sojourner though, it's based around a very clever central mechanic even though the graphics are horrible and it's set in an apocalyptic future world populated only by aggravating hipsters.
AI: The Somnium Files lands on the service today apparently, heard good things about that one - looks like an Alastor type of game so I'm sure he'll be along shortly to tell us if it's good or not.
I've got things like Cris Tales and Sable installed, but god knows when I'll get to them. Might give Scarlet Nexus a go, but I have no clue if I'll like it.
Been a bit of a run of mediocre indie games lately on Game Pass, feels like a while since the last big hitter.
Psychonauts 2 was only a month ago. I guess when you're constantly adding batches of games to a service, any dry period of quality feels much bigger than it is.
