I've never clicked with 1st-person melee stuff, but I think Avowed has nailed it. The dodges are super satisfying, and there are just so many fun builds. Rather than sticking with one fighting style, I'm seeing which unique weapons I find and just using those until the next fun thing comes along. Nothing has disappointed so far, and I'm not being punished for not specialising.
But it's the world itself that has grabbed me. It's beautiful, which is almost expected nowadays, but it's just so stuffed full of… stuff. Every nook, cranny and waterfall seems to hide a cave, chest or little bit of environmental storytelling.
It's about as far from a 'proper' RPG as you could get, and I do wonder what Pillars of Eternity fans think. But I'm having a blast.
I bought Pico 8 (after messing about with the emulated version on Onion OS), and Splore alone is worth the 12 quid. It's a curated, online frontend that constantly feeds you new micro games, and it's really the only way to find the good stuff.
There are some fantastic experiences on this thing, some really great one-shot game mechanics and yes, there's some crap too. But because there are no real save states, and you're typically only playing these games for 5 minutes at a time, it doesn't really matter. It's a lovely, curated box of wonders that really respects your time, and is the perfect antidote to AAA MEGA GAMES.
The first two paragraphs of Eurogamer's Avowed review couldn't be more timely.
"It took me a while to warm to Avowed. There's a feeling early on that it's all rather old-fashioned, a bit stiff and a bit wooden. It's there in the ambition of the game too: it doesn't seem to be doing anything grand or headline-grabbing. This is a big new role-playing adventure from a renowned first-party Xbox studio, but I just seem to be running around whacking lizard people. Where are the bold new ideas? Sometimes it feels like playing a game from the Xbox 360 era, albeit one with ray tracing and DLSS 3.
But as I stuck with it, that cynicism melted away, its Xbox 360-ness feeling more like a strength than a weakness. Unlike so many po-faced RPGs of today, Avowed feels blissfully unburdened by complication. It's an adventure in the warm sea air of a strange and fantastical island, and it never loses sight of that - of being an adventure. It's a game about climbing around on treasure hunts, striking out into the unknown, and revelling in the absurdity of its super-powered combat. It's a game that enjoys being a game - and I don't think we say that enough."
https://www.eurogamer.net/avowed-review
After another completely underwhelming game showcase (Sony this time), I feel like it's time to admit that games getting forever bigger isn't actually working. It's taking too long to create each game, and there's so much money invested that there are no AAA risks.
Without wanting to sound TOO much like Dok, I'd happily take less graphically/technologically ambitious games if it meant I actually had stuff to play. And not just 'this is a decent time filler' stuff like Sniper Elite and Far Cry 6 (my current play list).
Remember when we had 3 Fable games in one console generation? I want that back.
Mr Party Hat
