cavalcade

I think my issue with Bioshock Infinite is, while on the surface it's very similar to a modern shooter, a lot of the small incremental improvements in those games which have crept in since 2013 are quite apparent. It's very clunky mechanically, even if the traversal mechanic is quite fun. Also, I do think the storytelling is a bit laboured and tired. We were three games in and I spent a lot of it going YES I GET IT.

I won't tell you what my nickname for the Claw is, but it's also 4 letters and starts with c.

Play
Zelda BOTW: I don't think I've ever got as far as I have this time around. I remember really enjoying it on the WiiU, but it not really capturing me much. I remain constantly surprised at how little handholding there is, and how the game trusts you to just get on with stuff. On more than one occasion I've clearly solved a game puzzle in a way the devs might've predicted, but it felt like I'd come up with a clever solution to something. I think Cyberpunk is also good for this sort of thing. But I also think, unlike Cyberpunk, what an absolute breath (lol) of fresh air to not just have a map strewn with icons and THINGS TO DO SO I DON'T GET BORED. Zelda is quite sparse, but that makes it a lot more enjoyable. Finding something tucked away is a pleasure, not a constant stream of collectables and rewards, Assassin's Creed style. It also feels big, but not in an overwhelming way - because it cleverly localises tasks and puzzle structure. Yeah, I am enjoying it a lot.

Mario Kart: World. I think if you'd asked me if this was an alltimer after a few days of play I'd have given it a strong meh/10. It looks lovely, it plays well, and I really didn't mind it as a little break between other games. Then I got the online pass, and then I started playing the Elimination mode online. Now this game makes sense. What an absolute riot. I haven't had this much fun in an arcade combat racer since Blur. And it is very like Blur. Huge amount of things on track, and complete emergent chaos, punctuated by the thrill of hitting a gate just before the cut off. I haven't won yet, as some people are crazy good, but hitting the top 5 felt like an absolute adrenalin rush. And what is quite clever is as the pack thins, the final rounds are less about items and more about driving. It has a perfect little storytelling arc.

I'm also finishing up Detroit (which isn't that bad, and I've quite enjoyed), Crossworlds (which I really like, but I have to admit isn't drawing me in as much as MKW, which is a surprise), and also a bit of Puzzle Quest. Which is good, but the computer opponents cheat like crazy.

Want
The new Fire Emblem and I guess I'd like to give Splatoon another go when Raiders is out. As I have the online pass now, I have very few games to use it with. I remember quite liking Splatoon, but that's about it. A fairly chill online game might be just the ticket.

Bin
GTAVI is also a no from me, until we get some info one whether Rockstar have worked out how to tell a story in a videogame and with non-odious characters to boot. I also won't be touching it at 30fps, or buying a PS5 Pro, so at best it'll be a PC purchase.

Also, I managed to bin a mole I've had on my waistband for about 35 years. As I'm 50 this year, I finally thought, "this is really irritating, especially when I run, I wonder how much it would cost to get it chopped off?". 200 fucking euros. I always assumed it would be like 5k or something. So that was good, even if the doctor was a bit like a Simpsons character (slightly manic, with "degrees" from African nations I hadn't heard of). Added to that, and after 2 years of desk sitting and slowly getting fatter and fatter, I've also managed to lose almost a stone this month as part of a total life shakeup. The hope being I can move into my 50s slimmer and moleless…

I think the only one of those I'm interested in is the one that has two screens, like a turbo 3DS.

This thread is now an "all PC handhelds that aren't the Deck or Ally" megathread.

I'm not such a SteamOS enjoyer. I think it's fine, but a pain in the ass if you want to do a lot of stuff. And it also rules out a huge amount of games with anticheat. My ideal remains the excellent Ally MSI UI over a Windows backend. But, ultimately, it's just an OS, as long as the machine does what it's told, then it's much of a muchness….

The graphical thing is so true - I'd say maybe 2014/15 is the cutoff where the diminishing returns really kicked in. Environments, for sure. Facial animations, perhaps not - but then LA Noire still has better facial animation than most things and it came out in 2011….

And Mario Kart get. It's an odd beast isn't it? The elimination races are so reminiscent of Blur (which I adored) that I think if they could just flesh the concept out a bit, it would be genuinely brilliant.

The free roam thing is a bit shit, but I do appreciate Nintendo also develop for kids, and we've got an 8 year old nephew of my partner coming to stay for a bit next week (who is a huge MK fan but doesn't have a Switch 2 yet) and I could see him going nuts for it. I've seen a lot of reviews moaning the map isn't sprinkled with thousands of icons, like Horizon. But it feels a bit like Nintendo might understand play for play's sake a bit more than other devs. My kids at that age could be endlessly entertained just messing about in a safe world and making their own fun.

For sure, it's all a bit barren, but I also don't mind it's not a fucking Unisoft title. A side note, I also noticed this in Zelda. There was a bit where it told me to do something, and… it let me sort it out myself. My own map markers, route, and ordering of the tasks. I was so taken back when I found I had control like that I almost didn't know what to do. Which shows you where gaming is these days (or me).

The actual racing is… meh? As every review has said, but again, it does feel a little Blurlike in that regard, as that too really focused on long, straight tracks, maximising the weapon use rather than driving skill (though it is clearly a skill based game because of the rail grinding). The obvious thing to do is probably just make it a platform and slap all the MK8 tracks in there as a mode.

It all feels quite accessible, and frankly aimed at a family audience, and I don't see a problem with it. Like, no family is going to understand the clutter and bullshit of CrossWorlds.

A pleasant/10

I'm not sure how much more North I can take after Thank Goodness You're Here