SomTervo

Yeah, they don't explain the quick-item selection menu at all. I thought they did a better job of explaining some other core mechanics than usual - all the messages left in Hunter's Dream explaining how to fight properly, for example. But yes, some things always get left by the wayside... Protip with CB: if you can strike his head enough, he'll get stunned and become vulnerable to a visceral attack. Also, sticking near his knees and rolling diagonally past him when he attacks is always a good shout. In general, rolling diagonally past enemies is a game-changing tactic. If you end up right behind them they'll often hit you with a back-swipe style attack, but roll diagonally behind them, to their back-flank, and usually they have to awkwardly turn to reach you again. Edit: and I'm sure you've worked it out, but if you unlock the shortcut back to the gate at the Central Yarnham lantern (this opens the gate immediately on your left when you spawn there), you can get to Cleric really fast and also farm echoes and blood vials off the brick-wielding trolls down to the left. Also don't be afraid of the sewers. It looks horrible, like Blighttown or something, but it's a really painless bit of the level. I did it all in a oner, without dying and with almost no risk.

It is beautiful. Some stuff in the world just seriously changed at the stage I'm at, in a big way. Really amazing - as far as I can tell more ambitious and unusual than anything in the previous souls games. A veritable visual feast. Very much the horror too. I beat an irritating mid-game boss last night on my second try, entirely through hints and tips from others online. I'd wager the game is actually easy to beat as long as you go online and ask people for suggestions. There will always be some aspect/pattern you haven't picked up on which will make life easier. Don't give up on completing it, TN! I think Bloodborne will actually be the first Souls game I fully beat. It's marginally easier than the other games, but also the world is just so compelling and immersive. Walking into a new place, feeling like a hunter on some otherworldly frontier, is just addictive.

The Thief reboot is far, far better than The Bureau. It's a very solid game. And yes, the team who made the Thief reboot also made the broadly critically acclaimed Human Revolution. My bets are that they dropped the ball so badly on the Thief game (in terms of okay sales + it nowhere near matching the phenomenal quality of the previous Thief games) that they had to return to a tried and tested formula. Hence more Jensen!

It's totally the space you're in which makes Cleric a bit of a... beast to fight. The encounters in this game are so damn well designed. I feel the same re armour, Atom. On the one hand it's great – just for once in an RPG – to put on whatever looks cool instead of whatever has minor stat improvements. On the other... I hate the feeling that I'll take fewer hits to kill than I would otherwise. Last night I beat BSB and the W o H. BSB was fairly easy, but I think I was very overlevelled. Like level 40 or something, with a +5 Hunter's Axe. I discovered Forbidden Woods well before the other two paths,and found it so compelling I ran through it a few times before I went back to BSB and WoH. Two tries for BSB, one try for WoH. I'm 16 hours in, which I guess is a pretty long time to be doing those relatively early bosses. But at this pace I am absolutely loving the game and I'm far more engrossed in it than I ever was in DeS or DaS. Just encountered my first "snake"... That was very surprising and more than a little disturbing. It's all so Resident Evil 4, but juiced into a vulgar Lovecraftian nightmare

I'm worried about this ^. Very keen to play those games, even saw the devs speak about them at EGX Rezzed 2014 and asked them about their writing (very inspired by Sandman), but I'm worried the mechanics won't be as focused/elegant as, say, Monkey Island or Grim Fandango. Yes. Alien: Isolation is an FPS classic up there with System Shock, Deus Ex, Bioshock, Dishonoured. It's such, such a great game. If the first few hours don't grab you, hold out, because hours 6-19 most certainly will. That sucks about the crashing. I played on 360 and it was a slightly dumb game in concept, but really fun, with no issues whatsoever. On Hard mode, some of the later gunfights outperformed many of Halo and Mass Effect's best. It was great. Plus just you wait for that ending. Phenomenal last hour or so to The Bureau, even if the first half of the game is really quite poor. And shouldn't have been called XCOM. On-topic: I've been playing Just as great as everybody (read: most people) says. The very singular, focused aesthetic and style makes the game infinitely more playable than Demon's Souls or Dark Souls, which I still really enjoyed. Neither of those games kept me gripped right to the end, but Bloodborne has me rapt. Some of the best monster designs I've ever seen - and it doesn't hold back on the horror. There's some genuinely disturbing stuff in there, up there competing with Silent Hill's worse. The combat and game systems are the most refined and clever they've ever been, too. Recommend it to all PS4 users. (It's also not as hard as everyone says.)

I just did Vicar Amelia last night. Was awesome. What a game.

FYI that includes me and one other, so we got 4

I guess in future I'll caveat my gushing ramblings with '*The following is KR-excitement rant*'. Full-disclosure: this is something I get from my dad. Whenever I'm excited by something - a movie, a game, a book - I will rant about it incessantly and full of hyperbole, trying to convey the excitement I feel. Something my dad does in exactly the same way about films and music, etc. We are usually blinded to negativs in these instances, or forget them too easily. (As an aside, surely it's a good thing to enjoy stuff massively?) And Rev 2 is genuinely something I'm excited to play on a daily basis with my gf (her shifts don't coincide with mine that much so we've only chipped away at it up until half way through episode 2), and we both have a load of fun playing it. I think, when played with a friend, Rev 2 feels much bigger than it actually is. When I imagine playing the segments we've done by myself... I can imagine it being pretty disappointing and lonely. I beg to differ re the TLoU comparison, though. Even if only for select moments, there are times when there's a definite overlap. Like, similarly to Lost there are these high-level similarities (one experienced, strong playable character; one inexperienced, vulnerable one/apocalyptic environments/dangerous and threatening enemies and crowd control), but obviously the actual detail of the game is nothing alike. I guess I should be saying that TLoU has a lot of RE4 in it, so they have similar lineage. There were distinctly TLoU moments in my experience, however. Eg a moment when my partner and I were crouching behind a car in a street, a deadly, looming monster shambling along opposite. We're both pretty low on health so going at it normally would be too risky, as the noise would probably attract/spawn more enemies too. (all just like a TLoU scenario). So we devise a plan: my partner throws a brick one way, catching the monster's attention, and I go the other. I get up close, and stealth kill him. Total TLoU stuff, albeit with a co-op spin. This is only one scenario out of many in the game though. A lot of the time it's the usual Resi hapless running about doing crazy stuff.

Add me on PSN man and we can join up on it when I'm back from Holiday (free from 31 March). Quite a lot of content in the 5 heists, so that's nice!

It is mind boggling they didn't build that (really basic) feature in from the ground-up in this OS

I'd say it's worth it, under the following prerequisites: You find it on the cheap (shouldn't be hard) You played the original version long enough ago that you've forgotten most of it (it's a joy to replay in this situation) There is a lot of jank, and my team were denied our celebratory shouting at the end because when a Heist cutscene is on, voice chat is turned off. So we got a slow load, a scene where we sat in my pal's apartment drinking and clinking glasses, then all of us got booted into our own lobbies, alone. Was kinda a weird conclusion. But yes, the experience was worth it. That was our fourth try of the airport getaway and every time was great. Some of the set-up missions might be a slight chore to go through, but the heist itself was very fun. Highly replayable for all the different job roles, but also for those perfect, quintessentially GTA moments when six ingredients come together. The dynamic of 'getaway driver, escaping criminals with cops on tail, backup firepower, five wanted stars' was bloody brilliant, and feels like what GTA should achieve a lot of the time. There were five intense, crazy action scenarios going on at once and being experienced from four perspectives. And this was only the second heist! It's a really good product, basically, and I look forward to playing the others. Just added countless hours to GTA Online's playtime.

I wasn't saying it's a masterpiece – I never took that step – and obviously the way i've played it has affected my opinion. Playing it on a tiny, co-op split screen must make it look a lot better than it does in native res. And certain things become far more fun co-op for reasons I won't get into here – I think it's easier to overlook issues and poor design when you and a friend laugh stuff off and constantly press ahead for the next big rush. I also didn't say it was better than RE5/6 or DS3, but I think on the co-op survival horror stakes it does that better. Because those games basically don't feature co-op survival horror. Almost no games have ever done that successfully. Resi 5 went full blown action, but Rev 2 has a load of stealth (co-op stealth too), difficult survival horror fights, decent little puzzles – which is more than Resi 5 ever had. I think 6 did match that a few times, but the pacing was way worse. And I wasn't saying it is a co-op TLoU or that the level of quality is anywhere near that game – though my writing may have been a little misleading. I said 'imagine' a co-op TLoU. Because there are times where, indeed, the mechanics are exactly what TLoU would be like if someone else was playing Ellie. That doesn't mean they are as good or the graphics are as good. It just means that it's the same vibe and probably what co-op TLoU would be like a lot of the time. When I riff off 20 things which a game is like, I'm not saying that it is all these things. I'm like a wine connoiseur sniffing a glass of red and saying 'ooh, hints of blueberry, oak, cinammon'. I'm just saying 'there are flavours of all this stuff in the game'. I'm not saying IT'S THE NEXT LOST MEETS RESI 4 HOLY SHIT. Who the hell would think I'm saying that? Chances are my excitement about the game is making my posts have a bit of a hyperbolic tone, but I'm just drawing high-level similarities. Like the Lost, stuck on an island, conspiracy theories, strange supernatural shit? That high-level story stuff could apply to Rev 2, even if the writing is (yes) nowhere near as good and very hammy. I wouldn't call it full-blown bad though. This is mid-range stuff. (Barry is really badly written though, he's a stand-out shit dialogue beast.) I do think you're being way harsh on it though, Strange. Like, okay so the graphics are pretty mediocre. It costs £20. It lifts a lot of stuff from other games and stories. What doesn't? It mixes them together in a nice way in a good little adventure. (Also it's £20). Singleplayer I imagine the campaign is pretty damn dull, but as you say, Raid is brill. And it's £20. Y'all should try it co-op, because it's one of the few/only co-op survival horror games, and I'm having an utter blast with my gf playing it. And it's £20. At the level of a budget title, what you get is great. I've always said that. At no point did I say it's the same level of experience you get for £50 on a new, high budget game. On a different topic, a friend and I sunk a lot of time into GTAV's Heists yesterday. Very janky and needs a lot of ironing out, but this was great (copied from the GTAV Heists thread). Imagine it all in a rank, dry, sun-baked desert at noon:

Me and a buddy finished the Prison Break last night with two skilled randoms. It was fucking great. Had a genuine life-long gaming memory moment: - me and my buddy swinging onto an airstrip in a battered, bullet-ridden armoured prison bus > followed by six police cars, coppers hanging off the sides; three police choppers keeping us in their sights and the wanted level up; a SWAT van > at the end of the runway, our getaway driver is idling in an almost-destroyed getaway plane (the engine on fire, windows shattered) > in the air above us, the 'demolitions' guy is flying an attack chopper, raining down bullets and rockets onto the cops who chase us and the helicopter > I zoom down the runway, swerving the huge prison bus to avoid explosives and bullets. There are constant explosions and choppers falling out of the sky, often landing in burning heaps to either side of the bus. Smoke and bullets are everywhere. > we pull up to the getaway plane and jump out of the bus. I am on the side with the door so I get to the door, spin around, and cover my teammate and the target as they climb in. Only one panda car has made it all the way to the end of the runway, with more flooding in in the distance, and I shoot down the cops as they climb out of this car. > we all heap into the plane, screaming at the driver to get moving. The driver hits the pedal and... the plane engine sputters. The front rotor spins a couple of times and stops. The plane moves about one foot. We all begin screaming. > Three police cars come roaring up the runway, spinning to avoid the prison bus and firing off shots at us. Helicopters have circled overhead. > The demolitions guy blows up a chopper which lands nearby to the plane's front left flank. We scream. > He blows up another chopper which lands on the plane's wing. The whole thing rocks and creaks. We scream louder. (It's worth noting at this point that I was partly watching this from inside the plane, in the cabin, in first person, and partly in third person looking back at the runway.) > Finally the plane engine kicks in and the rotor spins and we gradually pull away from the chaos. There are now four cop cars behind us, officers hiding behind them with shotguns and rifles and letting off shots. > In an effort to escape the dangerous ground, our pilot pulls up sooner than usual. The plane slowly – agonisingly slowly – lifts up and floats off. Bullets ping through our windows and off the tail and chassis. Then we're away. The demolitions guy holds off the hordes of cop helicopters, they lose sight of us as we gain altitude, and our sputtering, groaning plane makes it off the police alert grid. In first person I look at my co-criminal sitting opposite and he has a bullet hole in his forehead, but he's okay. I won't spoil the very thrilling end of the thing, but by god, that was a glorious experience. Think Imma post this in Whatcha Playin Currently

No Man's Sky is one of the biggest unknown quantities in gaming. Might be a giant turd up shit creek. Might be kinda cool but fundamentally dull. Might be amazeballs. UC4 however, will be at least pretty good. And yeah... The Last of Us pedigree. Worth the wait. We've got plenty of great games to enjoy between now and then.

I did the intro Heist last night. It's two player only. Pretty nice! It's like a good multiplayer mission consisting of three parts. - A scoping mission (which is a wash-out. Nothing happens and the non-lead gangster gets paid for it out of the lead's bank) - Gathering missions (in the first heist this is just one mission to get an armoured car. Surprisingly good mission, felt immersive putting the masks on and stuff as a group) - The heist (immersive and cool while taking place, but over quite quick and had a slightly cop-out getaway) The heist itself would have been better if my partner hadnt gone full-blown Trevor and shot a hostage (who I carefully had been intimidating up until he botched the getaway). This forced a heist restart (disappointing - I would definitely prefer it if you had to do some more set-up or something. I believe we did lose about 10-20k each for the restart). A lot of potential. Each Heist has a set of Jobs which the Lead can delegate to the members. I was the Driver this time. My partner was the Driller (drilling into the vault). Other Heists have upwards of 5-6 set-up missions and obviously 4 roles. You can all be the same role if you want – so it's up to the players how each one goes down. If you'll have two gunners, two drivers, two drillers/security guys, etc. etc. Potential indeed. Will probably do another one tonight, 4 player this time. Drop me a line on PSN if you want to join. PS Rockstar have been having mega server issues due to the load and we couldn't get going properly until about 10.30pm GMT last night. Was a bit of a late one. I reckon it'll be a lot more stable by tonight.

Nice. ... Niiiice.

Looks more like an override to me. For 360 those settings were basically standard in all games - three difficulty modes, FP/TP perspective in racers, normal/inverted aim in shooters, etc. but this is by-button remapping. How many games have had that since the 7th gen? It certainly isn't a standard setting the console can advise the game on. And it would be really complicated to program overrides by app, so chances are it's system-wide. That's okay as long as we can access it quickly via the PS button though. Perhaps this is only a debug thing which was left in on the beta? That would be totally believable.

So comments on my status from the other day suggest that some people got beef with Resident Evil: Revelations 2 Come at me, brehs Revelations 2 feels like co-op Resident Evil 4 most of the time. But only the Village part. That is, only the best part of Resident Evil 4, which also has legendary status. And it's two of you surviving intense encounters in large areas with near-perfect pacing. (It's great.) I think, singleplayer, the story campaign could be a bit turgid by itself. But co-op it's phenomenal. Imagine TLoU with a really good co-op element. So one player is Ellie with limited combat but more support abilities. The other is a fighter/survivor like Joel. Mix in puzzles better than any of the puzzles of TLoU. Mix in the environment of Resi 4 mixed with Silent Hill 3. Mix in a better-than-Lost Lost-style story. Mix in the fact that it is cheap as fuck, and, well, we have a winner. Like, the amount of fun my partner and I had for £5 with the first episode was stunning. It does survival-horror action co-op better than Resident Evil 5 or Dead Space 3, which both did it well. We happily paid the £16 for the other four episodes immediately. And I'm only just getting my teeth into Raid mode, which seems really good albeit a bit of a slow starter.

I can't think of any specific control changes I want to make, but this is a game-changer for me. Have they confirmed if it is game-specific or if it'll be for ALL control inputs console-wide after the rebind has been made? Could be a bit awful if the latter.

Hello y'all GTA Online Heists launch today. A 4.5GB download for GTAV on PS4. I don't have high hopes, but lets see how this pans out. A friend and I are going to jump on tonight after 9pm GMT, so that's 2 players out of 4 max. Another pair want to join us? Could all party up if more are online anyway. My PSN ID is the same as my username here. The guy says that there seem to be 5 heists with 5-6 missions each. First one is 2 player, the rest are 4. I have a feeling they're just going to be mediocre coop missions.

Anyone I know who's into games with stories thinks it's very well written and that the plot is just okay. Nobody has said it's particularly heinous. Perhaps this ridiculous plot thing is well-introduced? Well-written? Basically anything can be turned into 'good story' if it's written well enough.

If you want to see how governments actually work watch The Thick of It. I bet the original House of Cards is closer to reality, too, but I never seen none of dat