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Wuchang: Fallen Feathers I can usually tell if I'm going to stick with a souls-like inside the first hour or so. Some games (Khazan, Lies of P, Wu-Long) will immediately click and I'll push through any early-game issues. Some games however just...don't click for whatever reason (Thymesia, Lords of the Fallen). I fear Wuchang is one of those games. I've gone back to it 4-5 times now; spent hours trying to get into it and it's just not happening, and I'm not sure why. Combat perhaps? Not being able to parry feels...well, kind of primordial to be honest with you, especially coming off of Khazan and to a lesser extent Clair Obscur. The combat also has a weightlessness to it that doesn't feel very satisfying, and whilst dodging does fell good when you get it down, having to rely on perfect dodge timing in order to do anything resembling decent damage (you earn magic or some shit for a perfect dodge, the magic can then be spent to perform more powerful attacks) to the enemy that'll absolutely decimate you if you mess up just doesn't feel great. At the same time, man I feel like I should enjoy this game. How long do I give it before I throw in the towel for good?

We're over half-way. What's your GOTY so far? Clair Obscur for me. It's been about a month since I finished it and I can't get the damn thing out of my head. I'm watching youtube essays on it's mechanics, it's story and it's overall design. I've been contemplating a NG+ run, which is something I never (ever) do. The game has wormed it's way into my life like I never expected, especially coming from a genre that frankly, I wouldn't have looked twice at before. I fucking hate turn-based games. Special shout-out to Rematch. There's been a fair amount of talk about the games flaws and somewhat janky mechanics, and whilst those aren't without merit, I'm having an absolute blast playing this thing on my Steamdeck. I'm currently sitting at 34 hours played through the games opening two months. K

Series X Me and my brothers have been looking for something new to play on our Sunday night gaming sessions, and this is finally coming to XBOX so we can all play. Very excited to take a look at it. 99p on CDKeys. Couldn't say no.

Dead Take This is a cook indie horror game that the creator describes as a reverse escape room. Basically you're exploring/unlocking this creepy mansion belonging to a Hollywood producer using escape room style puzzles, while learning the sinister things that happened/are happening there. It's really fuckin weird, and uses a lot of FMV. It's almost like Alan Wake x Immortality. It's cool though, I recommend it. Grade: B+ And Roger This is a cool short indie game about a girl with some kind of mental health problems. I can't really say more without spoiling it. It's only like an hour long, but super moving. Grade: A

One of my coworker/friend suddenly lost their mother this past week. This song was on my mind as I helped her (along with a few others) get to her friend's house prior to flying home the next morning

Sekiro After several restarts I finally finished this one lol, every time I played, I would stop for a bit, forget everything and then start again, this time I finally pushed through. Easily my least favourite FROMSOFT game, and it's 100% on me, while I can see why it gets the praise it gets, specially the combat, it is also mostly not for me, I saw mostly because I did really enjoy the stealthy bits, going around a level, tracking enemies, taking them down one by one, running away to lose aggro, all that was cool, it's when you actually have to fight, specially during boss fights, that the whole thing comes crashing down. Doesn't help that unlike other games, Soulsborne or otherwise, every guide for Sekiro is just "git gud" there's no other way lol, no builds, no shortcuts, there's a couple of cheeses (and I did use one for one of the last bosses lol), but mostly, the only advise is just "learn how to play, memorize each attack of each phase, then git gud!" The story, presentation, voice acting (played with JP audio) and music are excellent though. Think I got the bad ending? I have no desire to play through again for the other endings though. The way the final boss fight ends was really cool. \m/ \m/ Some of the bosses were amazing to look at, the design of these things is awesome, even if the actual fights were hell. Except for the visually impressive, but one of, if not the easiest boss in the game. Overall, I'm glad I played it, I can see why people like it so much, but I also don't want to play through it ever again. Grade: B+

This is a cool looking FMV indie horror game. Looks kinda similar to Immortality. It's only $15 and is getting good reviews (and the HLTB is only 4 hours!) so I decided to check it out.

This game has a lot of really cool ideas that it executes really well on, but unfortunately also has some aspects that drag it down. The premise is you're trapped on an alien planet with a movable base that requires more than one person to operate, so you have to essentially clone copies of yourself who made different life choices, so they have different personalities and skills. The core concept works really well, and the interactions between the Alters are shockingly smooth, up there with like Mass Effect companion interactions. All that works great, as does the base management aspect. Where it doesn't work so great is the third person exploration of the world. You have to run around finding resources, putting down mining rigs, destroying anomalies, etc etc. It's not bad, it's fine, but it always just seems like it's a barrier to what I really want to be doing, which is the management side. It doesn't ruin the game by any stretch, but it does prevent it from reaching the heights it otherwise might. Still, I recommend the game to anyone who thinks it sounds interesting. Grade: B+

I hope your optimism is rewarded

IMO, Yeah, it's pretty bad, tried to be a Soulslike in the worst way possible lol, still, I enjoyed the other two a lot, so still kinda hyped for this one.

I never played 3, wasn't it supposed to be bad?

IT'S HAPPENING

Donkey Kong Bananza Yeah @toxicitizen basically said it all. This game is fantastic. There's something really cathartic about turning on the Kong bananza and just smashing the shit out of everything.

Ditto this. It's grabbed me in a way that no game has grabbed me since Outer Wilds. Probably my GOTY, and it isn't even close.

That's adorable! I want it!

Make it your priority, it's so good!

Donkey Kong Bananza Holy crap, this game is fantastic! Just rolled credits on the campaign, and while I still have to see what's going on in the post-game, the campaign was meaty enough that I feel like I've played enough to post my thoughts now. This isn't just the best Donkey Kong game yet, I actually enjoyed it more than Mario Odyssey. Punching your way through everything in sight is just insanely fun. Nintendo were really onto something with this one. I really hope they'll keep this formula going and make follow-ups that don't completely reinvent the wheel because I definitely want more of this. The bananza transformations are all fun to use and give you some variety in how you can approach things. Near the end of the game, there were some sections that made you use them all together and I really hope there's more of that in the post-game because that was great and the main campaign could've used more of that. The campaign overall is a ton of fun but the last section in particular had me grinning from ear to ear the entire time. I don't want to spoil anything so I'll leave it at that. The soundtrack is also great. The bananza themes in particular are so freaking catchy that I keep wanting to listen to them outside of the game. The only real issue I can come up with is how easy the game is throughout but the gameplay loop is so much fun that I never got bored by the lack of challenge. Besides, I'm sure that's what the post-game is for like with the last few Mario games. So yeah, whenever you guys get around to buying a Switch 2 make sure to get this one. It's a must-play.

I needed a keychain. Eradicate all lost keys. Is it overpriced? Yeah but I'm going through it lately and I wanted a treat.

God knows when I'll actually have enough time to get around to it though.

"Something something Europe would fit inside Texas something something..."