danielpholt

Mortal Shell II Didn't expect anything of this when I heard it was coming out a few months ago. However, after 45 hours with the game, I think I'm officially a fan. It doesn't reinvent the wheel or anything, but it does everything really well, and without any real frustration. I enjoy these games greatly, but often I find there's one little thing that frustrates me no end. That wasn't the case here. Sure, there's the occasional badly designed boss, but for the most part, the rest of the game felt like it was designed to give the player a challenging but incredibly fun time. 4/5 - About as high a score I can give a game without it becoming something I'd consider getting tattooed on my actual human body.

Mortal Shell II I love this game. Low-key might be my favourite non-From Souls game; overtaking Lies of P for that title. For context, I didn't enjoy the first game at all. I tried three times on multiple platforms but it just never stuck. This thing though? It feels like it's almost the perfect version of what I want from these games. The boss fights are difficult without being frustrating slogs that expect you to be damn near perfect at all times. The world is fun to look at and enjoyable to explore and the combat feels tight but fair. Plus they've just released a massive update that fixes some of the more pressing issues the community was having, like patching in a system that'll allow you to respawn outside a dungeon upon death; a pet hate of mine. Honestly, this thing is great, and I'm pleased to see the devs getting their moment in the sun because they fully deserve it.

Gone halves with my brother. Should be able to finish it pretty quickly and make a lil bit of our cash back on resale.

I played a few hours of Yes, Your Grace like 5 years ago now so I may be misremembering somewhat. I found Y,YG to be more interested in the day to day management of the kingdom, whereas ST is more focused on pushing the story along with your decisions...if that makes sense.

Sovereign Tower Like I said in the previous post, I don't typically go in for these sorts of games. That said, this one stole my heart in much the way a game called Bad North did a few years ago in that it's perfect for short sessions, looks brilliant on the smaller Steamdeck screen and is very chill. The later game *does* get a bit harder than the earlier stuff, as you might expect. Although the game also features a neat way to amend any mistakes you may have made along the way. That fix is also incorperated into the plot of the game in a way that just works. Again, I wouldn't normally go in for this sort of thing but I ended up really enjoying it, and if I fancy a second run at some point, I may actually take that up.

Yo this game is like twice as long as it needs to be and all of the negatives that I listed at the bottom of my original post only got more and more annoying because of it. I mainlined the final 5 hours of the game and by the time I was done it felt like a fucking cliche of itself in ways. The final cut-scene is like half an hour long. Anyway. Currently playing Sovereign Tower. It's a visual novel meets management game with a nice medieval/court setting. According to my Steamdeck I've ploughed 10 hours into it in 24 hours. I doubt that, but it's besides the point; this game is wonderful.

Beast Of Reincarnation The first chapter sucks. Everything you'd heard about the game is true. All of it. The second chapter soften things up a little, you get into a nice grove with the combat and you realise that whilst everything you'd previously heard about the game is true, there are caveats. The combat system whilst a little repetitive is actually really kind of fun. There's a constant feed of new moves and powers you can utilise to beat back the enemy. The once-jarringly emotionally empty cutscenes start to make more of a sense from a narrative point of view. I've just beaten chapter 3. And whilst the game is far from being the best game released this year, I can't help but feel it's being somewhat unfairly (or fairly, I guess, given the studio) judge for the fact that it isn't the best thing to come out since Elden Ring. It's limited in its scope. It's world feels empty and at times it feels like it's there for the sake of being there. The cut-scenes are overly long and at times utterly tedious to watch.....And yet, I can't stop ploughing 2+ hours a night into it. I'll finish this, and I'll probably look excitedly towards it's no doubt bigger and better sequel.

Man's gone on holiday during the summer recess. Time to call a GE.

I believe it does, but I think in order to get the 4k/120hz I had to disable the VRR and run it in a different mode (using the Dolby thing - It's been a bit since I set it up).

Halo: Campaign Evolved. It's been about what, 12/13 years since I last played through this campaign (when they last re-released it) and for the most part there's some nice improvements here. Obviously it looks very nice, and it plays well enough (it's a Halo game - point and shoot at its finest). but hot damn, this thing was not performing all that well on my Series X. I played in performance mode and I noticed some pretty rough slowdown when things got busy, most notibly when I was driving around in the tanks and flying dildo looking things in the mid game. For the most part that wasn't an issue however, as the majory of the game takes place in small, confined kill-rooms. Cutscene's were a different thing entirely though. Every single one had multle slowdowns and framedrops, and honestly I'm not sure why. Supposedly it runs better on the PS5, which is a great sign of where Xbox is right now.

I'd be in favour of them having to call a GE inside six months. As much as 'we don't vote for a PM', most people couldn't pick their local MP out of a lineup of two and the vast majority are voting to put their guy into number 10. Six months. I said that when the Tories were playing musical chairs and I hold to it now. I'm already seeing reports in the press about how things are improving. Gradually yes, but improving none the less. Starmer (for all his faults) has laid the groundwork for future success and I hope Burnham can continue that trend. It just seems a little silly that we waiting 15 year to get back into power, and then within 23 months we decided to ditch the guy who got us there because the media decided they needed to brew up this entire scenario.

Whats the over/under on how long Burnham has before the right-wing media (and thus) the general public turns on him? A year, a week? I'm no fan of Starmer, and I hate the fact that I'm out here defending him but I honestly think he's been the best PM we've had since Blair and this is the first government we've had since the coallition that's actually been able (or willing) to get things pushed through parliment. We keep looking for the silver bullet. The silver bullet doesn't exist. Politicians keep pushing the narrative that there's a viable quick fix to the mess we find ourselves in. The media is intent on generating clicks through salacious story's that they'll push and push and turn the slightest storm-in-a-tea-cup into a PM toppling scandal and the people are either too thick or too lazy to see what's happening. Does my gourd in. Don't like Starmer, but it's ridiculous that we're in this spot. I say that as a member of the public, and as a Labour member.

Advance Wars This little thing rocks. I suck at it. I'm going to have to use a guide to get to the end of the main campaign, but it still rocks. The mad bastards made an adorable little RTS game that's full of so much charm and character that I can't believe it never made a more successful jump over to the big-boy consoles.

Super Mario Bros 3 Played this whilst on holiday last week. It's the first time I've actually played it through from front to back and for the most part I really enjoyed it. It's actually kind of amazing to me that this and SMB came out on the same system. This game feels lightyears away from what came before it. The final few worlds felt also like a Super Mario Maker world-set, and that's both good and bad. A few of the levels towards the end (notably the fortress levels) were a little too much for me, and I had to resort to a guide to keep off frustration. Still. Got through it. Can't wait to play it again (probably the GBA remake).

Grabbed this on Steam. Looking for something to play whilst on holiday and I'm hoping this'll be it.

Gun-Nac I was playing around with shaders whilst setting up my new retro-doodad and found myself really digging this thing. Ultimately ended up playing it through over a few sessions. It's a super cool (and fairly accessible) NES schmup with some nice enough art and a steller weapon/upgrade system. It also may have opened up a new genre to me.

Forza Horizon 6 I'm not versed enough in the series to give you a real idea about how they've changed things up. I am however, once again having a good time with the game. It looks beautiful, it's immediately fun to just drive around and the racing is engrossing enough that I'm perfectly happy to just bounce from one race to another whilst knocking over road signs and whatnot. However. However. The game fucking tanks my XBOX Series X man. It'll be running fine and then suddenly and without warning it'll full on crash the console and the entire system turns off. I've googled it and it seems to be an issue with the first year's Series X. Perhaps overheating? I've cleaned the unit inside and out and there's no dust, so the working assumption seems to be a CPU paste issue. Oh well. I can probably muddle through it until I run out of interest in a few weeks (as always happens with these games; they take over my free time and then just vanish without a trace once I'm done with them - see Animal Crossing).

Directive 8020 It's another one of 'those' games from Supermassive Games. Only this time it's got a science-fiction theme to it and you're in space. If that appeals to you then you'll likely enjoy this, if not then...probably skip it. For what it's worth I enjoyed it, but I've enjoyed almost everything they've put out. If I had to pick some nits I'd say the stealth sections are far too frequent and some of the animation/dialogue didn't seem to match up, which seems like an oversight given this is what that studio is famous for. I believe it's another 'Dark Pictures' game rather than a full-on standalone game. So closer to Man of Medan and Little Hope than it is The Quarry or Until Dawn.

I'm weak. Also grabbed:

I'm a massive Cuphead fan and I've got mixed feelings about this. The spin-off? Should be neat. I'm glad they've gone in a different direction for that, both in terms of gameplay and aesthetic. Can't wait to get my hands on it and they're even releasing it on cartridge. The sequel? I'm not so sure. OG Cuphead is for my money, one of the best 'they nailed it' games I've ever played. It's damn near flawless in my opinion. And I'm a little bit worried that whatever they try next is going to feel like a failed comparison. That said, I've got faith in these guys to deliver for the fans. I just hope they've not bitten off more than they can chew.

Can't decided between one of these or the Retroid Pocket Classic. I know they do two totally different things, but I can't really justify having like four of these fucking things around (Steamdeck, Switch1/2, Anbernic RG40XXV, Pocket and Thor). Lies Of P Overture Really struggled to get into this one and I think it's down to the fact that I downloaded a safe file and played it on Deck. Eventually we got there but I spent a good few hours pushing up against the fact that it doesn't tutorialise (is that a word) the new DLC very well, which is a problem when you've not played the game for a solid 2 years. When I did finally get into my groove it's exactly what I expected; more Lies of P, for good and ill.

Flirted with the Steam version as it apparently runs fine on Deck, but I didn't want to take any chances so ultimately decided on the PS5 version.

Dynamite Headdy I love this game, I hate this game. It's a Genesis/Mega Drive platformer from way back. Beautiful visuals and a really fun soundtrack with some genuinely unique takes on the genre as a whole...but damn man they went too hard on the difficulty. I'm using save-states like a motherfucker and I still can't beat it. Apparently the Japanese version of the game is significantly easier than the US version (which I must be playing). Either way, my time with this little thing is at and end. Real fun, real cool...but just too damn hard for me. Sektori This game should have made my top-5 games of last year. It's taken a Super Hexagon styled grip on my free-time and shows no signs of letting go. Heck, as I get better at the game I find myself reaching for it more and more to scratch that itch. It really is fantastic, even more so on Steam Deck. Lies of P: Overture So originally I played this on Xbox Gamepass. However, well no thanks. CD Keys had a steam key of the two games going for £30 so I grabbed it on their and plan to play it on 'Deck. It runs well enough (45FPS at medium settings) and my experience of beating Dark Souls III on the handheld has made it viable for these sorts of games. Anyway. Given it's been almost two years since I last played this game, I'm having a really hard time in actually getting back into it. I can't remember any of the systems or mechanics. I guess I'm going to have to just gtgud right? Should add, I downloaded a save game file that allows instant-access to the DLC area as it's fairly deep into the game and I didn't fancy a full on replay.

Sektori It's Geometry Wars with a shiny coat of paint and some really great animations. I don't normally go for these games, but I'd heart it recommended on The Besties podcast and yeah, it's absolutely perfect if you're looking to kill 10-15 minutes. Honestly, if I'd had more time with it I could see it creeping into my top five of the year list. Super cheap too.