danielpholt

Deaths Door It just wasn't grabbing me and truth be told, I'm not sure why. Probably more of a space and time thing than anything with the game.

What about whining or whine?

Just the sheer force of the rumble is enough to make me turn it off. The Switch commits an act of violence on me whenever the damn thing needs to rumble.

I Am Dead. It just wasn't grabbing me, which is a shame because I usually connect with these games. The game doesn't have the strongest start in the world (far too much talking for my liking, especially in a game like this). I may return to it, I may not.

Started Death's Door last night. I'm only about an hour in but so far so good. It seems a bit more combat focused than Tunic, which is a nice change of pace. One gripe I do have, and this is likely specific to the Switch (when handheld)....the HD rumble is an absolute nightmare. I'm trying to play this thing with a sleeping baby in the room and every single time I die, or engage the enemy I got this bone shaking rumble out of the Switch, and there's no option to disable it in the game itself, so I've had to do it at a system level. Not the end of the world, but certainly annoying.

A Memoire Blue A very short game about a daughter reconnecting with her mother. It's light on the 'gameplay' and heavy on the feels. All in all it took me about 90 minutes from front to back. Super nice art, some incredible moments of spectacle and a heartwarming story. Solid effort. Also on Gamepass. Tunic I'm guilty of using a guide to help me get through the final few hours of Tunic, and once I did that the first time I never looked back. It absolutely took some of the shine off of the game, but I still really rate this one. I'd be very surprised if this isn't in the running for some industry wide awards come November and December. 4/5

Figured that I loved both Tunic and Links Awakening so I should probably dive into this genre a little more. Also it was cheap on Switch and seems perfect for that platform.

I'm hoping that in 2-3 years I'll have forgotten a lot of the detail, or at-least enough to keep it fresh. The game does a decent job of providing you with what you need to solve it's puzzle; although there's a certain amount of deduction built into it.

Tunic - Xbox - Gamepass If I'm being reductive I'll say this is Zelda meets Dark Souls meets Fez, and it's kind of great. I don't really have the language or critical ability to state what makes it amazing, but after 9-10 hours I'm still absolutely enjoying it. There's a bit of a learning curve; nothing is spelt out to you and the combat (especially early) is kinda difficult to get to grips with (although it's far from complicated), but if you give it a chance there's so much to enjoy here. As I mentioned, big Fez vibes in how the game presents it's puzzles. If that's up your alley then definitely check it out.

Regency Solitaire Finished the main campaign. It's solitaire, with added romance. Return of the Obra Dinn You ever play a game that you know is going to consume your mind for the next X months? That's Obra Dinn for me. From the moment I loaded it up, to the moment I put it down I was totally engrossed in its mystery, its gameplay and it's presentation. A top 10 game of all time for me, and one that I look forward to re-playing in the future.

Grabbed both on Switch. Already own Superhot on PC, Xbox and Playstation (VR Bundle). It would appear that I'm a fan of this game.

I'm not even sure I dislike the game as a whole. It just falls down in some incredibly obvious ways and I think we can/should expect better from arguably one of the biggest entertainment franchises on the planet. As I said in my post, I think there's a game I could enjoy in there, but right now I'm just not in the right mental space to find it. In short.... It's me not Pokemon Legends Arceus.

Disco Elysuim Seems like a super neat game, but one that just isn't going to work for me. I wonder if playing this on the Switch is a contributing factor here? Maybe I guess, but what is absolutely for certain is that I'm just not feeling it. I'm going to be super reductive now and say this: If I wanted to read that much text, I'd read a book. I know that's a shit way to look at this game, because I've heard it does some truly amazing things, but much like the game below...I think it might be place and time thing for me. Pokemon Legends Arceus I know I moaned about the game when it launched, and whilst my opinion hasn't really changed on it, I do think there's fun to be had here. Unfortunately I don't think I'm in the right head-space to find that fun, and as such I've decided to put it down. Maybe I'll return at a later date, or if I find myself suddenly with a load of free time, but right now my time is far too limited to be spent on something I'm not enjoying/getting anything out of.

The Terror Not nearly as creepy as you might believe based on the opening episode, but still a truly memorable season (I've only done season one) of television that does a remarkable job of keeping you invested across the ten episodes of constantly and unrelenting misery and hardship. IIRC the show originally aired in the days after my first child was born, so I may be misremembering but I don't recall anyone talking about this show, which is a shame because it's a really strong bit of work.

I don't think it helped that I apparently suck at that game. It's hard as shit, especially when you line it up against something like Odyssey or even Galaxy. My daughter liked it though, especially the animation that accompanied Mario entering the different worlds.

@TheMightyEthan I actually had Wind Waker on there originally, but given that it's available elsewhere, and that I played it on WiiU I felt it important to give another game a chance. @MetalCaveman Super Mario Sunshine would absolutely have made this list if I'd made it last year. Unfortunately I played that All-Stars release a few months ago and my opinion of Sunshine came crashing down. I've got some very fond memories of that game, but my memory makes that game an awful lot better than it actually is. Props on Wave Race though, that game was my go-to weekend rental for a good while.

I'll kick us off with my list. I'm going for games that I hold a deep affection for, rather than the most popular games, or the ones that sold the most. I'm under no illusions here, absolutely nobody is going to buy this thing but heck, I'd really like to be able to play Starfox Adventures on my big TV. 4 Console Exclusives: Starfox Adventures Mario Kart Double Dash Luigi's Mansion Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes 3 Third Party Games Timesplitters 2 Resident Evil (2002) SSX Tricky 1 Misunderstood gem 007: Agent Under Fire So that's my list. There's an awful lot of shit on it, but it's shit that I absolutely adored in the early 2000's and I'm not sure anything gets better than when you're 12-14 years old. Games like 007, Timesplitters, Mario Kart and SSX were staples of me and my friends early teen years. Twin Snakes is still the only MGS game I've played. Starfox holds a special place in my heart as the first game I'd ever finished from front to back. What's on your list?

Rumours are swirling that we might finally see Nintendo give it's most underrated console some much needed love in the form of a 'Mini' edition, and I thought it might be fun if we fantasy cast this new (even more) adorable cube of games. After a serious of baffling decisions, followed by a string of shock resignations and a power struggle for the soul of the company, you find yourself top of the pile. And as such, it's your job to hand pick the 8 games that encompass the Best of the Nintendo GameCube. The console will have 4 controller ports. Wireless ones. Because Wavebird I guess? Also it'll come in Purple, Orange and Rose Gold colours. Easy right? Nah. After doing some research you discover that licensing is a total fucker. as such there's some strict criteria you have to meet when it comes to selecting your games. The Criteria is as follows: - 8 Games Total - 4 Console Exclusives - 3 Third-party games (can also be exclusive to the console) - 1 Misunderstood gem (a game that scored less than 70% on Metacritic - doesn't need to be exclusive)

Pokemon Legends Arceus I'm gonna keep this short, partly because I don't have the language to say what I think about this game, and partly because I'm still holding out hope that maybe it'll get better. What I will say is that Pokemon Legends Arceus is a massively disappointing game that's full of half finished ideas, uninteresting fetch quests, an uninspiring open world and a core gameplay loop that I find to be pretty boring. And on top of all that, it runs and looks like absolutely ass. Not you know, like Selma Heyak's ass in that scene from the late 90's Action Comedy Wild Wild West staring Will Smith, Kevin Kline and (obviously) Selma Hayek. No, it looks like the ass of a Octogenarian with a prolapse. Anyway, I remain hopeful that maybe as I progress further into the game it'll become a little less hand-holdy, maybe a little more willing to let me figure things out on my own because after three hours I'm finding myself constantly frustrated by the near endless cutscenes involving two or three characters silently talking to one another whilst also explaining a fairly basic video game mechanic. It has great music.

For what it's worth the game definitely gets more interesting once you've unlocked some of the more advanced characters, but that's probably 2-3 hours in so I get why people might bounce off it.

I think Jeff Grubb was talking about how Microsoft may see some value in the idea of releasing everything everywhere, but making them timed-exclusives to Gamepass/XBOX before ultimately releasing them on Playstation for whatever the going rate is. That way you still get that sweet post release ££££ but you're still making a pretty great advertisement for gamepass. Free is very hard to argue with.

Nobody Saves The World It's a very accessible dungeon crawler from the people who made the excellent Guacamelee 1 and the totally okay Guacamelee Two a few years back. It's bright and colourful, has a great soundtrack and is hitting all the right spots for me. Basically you'll play as this little....dude who is himself a little ineffective, however he's got a magic wand and that allows him to change into different characters, the normal stuff; a Knight, a Rogue, a Horse, you know, normal shit. It's not interested in making things difficult and whilst it does get a little grindy at times, it's certainly not punishing in any real way. If you die you simply fly back to the start of the dungeon and re-enter, earning even more points towards your unlocks, and damn are there a lot of things to unlocks. It's a constant rush of upgrades and increased stats. It's on Gamepass which obviously is why I tried it. Unfortunately no Switch version, which is a shame because I think this would be an absolute delight on that system.

Lazy was the wrong word. There's many reasons why people aren't as involved in our politics as I would like, most of which IMO comes from how it's taught (or not) in schools, how our media landscape is shaped to favour one of the two big parties and how democracy happens to people, rather than them being involved in it. Unfortunately important decisions can't be squashed down to a soundbite, and the powers that be don't want us educated enough to realise how fucked we are. It doesn't have to be like this, other countries make it work, and they're all the better for it. Until we break the cycle it won't get any better, but that cycle isn't going to break on it's own. It's creaking, but until we push a little, it won't break. ---- Lazy was a bad choice of word, but I as I also said in the previous comment, there's many reasons why people don't engage with politics in the UK, most of it stems from how little time we spend educating people on our democracy; it's importance and it's day-to-day ramifications, but there's also the fact that democracy for most people in this country means one thing and one thing alone; elections. Democracy is something that happens to people in this country, they're not actively involved in it, it just appears every 4-5 years and they tick a box based on which middle-class white dude they like the look of more on that given day. We can do better, we have to do better. Look at the Brexit referendum for example; the general public haven't got a clue about whether or not remaining in the EU is a good idea, and why would they? Forcing us to choose Leave or Remain is a horrendous way of deciding something that's going to effect every single one of us for the rest of our lives. However, a Citizens Assembly would have been a much fairer, more nuanced way to handle that question. It would have gotten us closer to understanding the true positives and negatives of leaving the EU, removed all aspects of party politics from the equation and brought the general populace into the debate in a way that didn't feel forced or like we were being spoken down to; it's democracy for the people, by the people. We can make changes to the system to benefit all of us, and that has got to start in schools. We need to be teaching our kids the importance of our democracy, of the value of their voice. Teach them how other countries run their own systems of government and how they're electoral systems work vs our own. Teach them about the role of the Unions in making working people's lives better, and about how as a collective of individuals we can make changes on every level. I don't expect people to suddenly start reading manifestos and joining political parties, but I do think we as a country are almost uniquely disinterested in the politics that shape our lives. And I don't blame people for that at all, I get it entirely. Life in the UK sucks, it's sucked for a while and for a lot of people it doesn't matter who's making the decisions, red or blue or yellow; it still sucks. That being said, change isn't going to come out of nowhere and getting the red guys in power instead of the blue guys isn't going to magically fix everything; it'll make it better but if we truly want to make things better we have got to get more involved as a nation. And I think that comes through schooling. I'm going to end with a quote I like now from Charles De Ghaulle because I've gone on long enough, and no one is actually still reading. Finally, I've edited this post like 5 times because I think that we do fundamentally agree, I think I came across as an ass in my previous post and didn't want that to happen again.