danielpholt

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.

I prefer lazy, uninformed and disinterested, some of which I understand. It does feel like you're ignored, that your vote doesn't matter and that 'they're all the same'. We do an awful job of bringing people into our politics, of teaching how it all works, what it all means and how it can all come together to make our country a better place. We should be teaching this shit at schools from an early age. You want to know why the young don't participate in this stuff, because they don't understand it (aren't taught it) and they see policies that consistently go against their best interests (because they're not participating in voting - because they aren't taught what it means or how to do it). Lets be honest, that's by design; it suits those at the top. The last thing they want is an educated electorate, and that goes for both major parties to some extent.

It's only a matter of time before they ditch Johnson. What worries me is that the general public will be on hand to vote for whoever replaces him, as if they deem the UK's issues are tied exclusively to Johnson and not ten years of Conservative rule. I didn't see my family across 2020/21, aside from two separate funerals for my Aunt and my partners Nan. We didn't hug. We sat socially distanced and we said our goodbyes and went home to cry on our own. Meanwhile they're off, laughing at us.... That being said, it says an awful lot about the state of our countries politics that after everything; the corruption, the mistreatment of the most helpless in our society, the complete lack of care in which Brexit and Northern Ireland was handled, that it's a fucking garden party that does the current PM, and (potentially) his governing party in. I've said it before, but the biggest issue we have in our democratic system is that the electorate just isn't paying attention. If they were, maybe we'd figure this stuff out before it got to this point.

I'm enjoying it. I think it's something that I'll probably drop in and out of over the next few months as it's not something that screams '6 hour-marathon sessions' to me. I should say, Switch is absolutely not the way to play this. I appreciate having it on portable, but there are times where it chugs on that hardware, dropping down to sub-20fps. That last part may not have bothered me as much a few years ago, but I've become so used to playing most things at a solid 60 on the new consoles that it suddenly feels like a pretty noticeable niggle.

Talked myself into getting this one with some left over Eshop credit from Christmas.

Horizon Zero Dawn is probably one of my favourite games from the last few years, and one of the few things that might force me to seek out a PS5. That first game is something else.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course Feels like this one has been in development for 4-5 years already (which IIRC was how OG Cuphead went?). Should be out in the summer months. Bayonetta III You know how sometimes you just want to slay a fuck load of angels whilst making pithy comments about the size of their appendages and I dunno, having your hair turn into a giant demon-dog thingy? That. Hogwarts Legacy JKR aside, I still really like the world of Harry Potter and I think we're due a good game within this universe. It'll probably suck, but here's hoping. Splatoon 3 I spent an awful lot of time playing Splatoon 2 in the year after it came out. I'm well up for more of that now, only I've got the added bonus of having a 4 year old who I think would absolutely love the core idea of this game. I've no doubt missed a few, but there we are. What are you most looking forward to in 2022?

Couldn't find a topic for this so I made one... The Forgotten City With peoples GOTY lists coming out, I've spent a good chunk of time listening to people talk about how this game isn't to be missed, so I found a few hours (5-6) to give it another shot, and much like Outer Wilds a few years previous (another time-loop game) it grabbed me hard on the second attempt. I'm not sure why that is, but I think its got more to do with my own mental state than the game itself. As for the game, it's a genuinely interesting game with a time-loop mechanic that not only works well, but for the most part doesn't fall foul of the same issues that something like Twelve Minutes, or even (one of my favs) Outer Wilds does; the time-loop as a mechanic doesn't impede your enjoyment, or turn things into a repetitive slog. The ending has an awful lot to do, but for the most part it handles it well enough. It's a bit corny, but all in all, I enjoyed it enough. It's one XBOX Gamepass, and I definitely recommend it.

These are my 'newborn baby won't sleep unless they're attached to me' games for the coming months.

MoM is definitely the weakest entry in the series, tbh it's probably their weakest game to date, and I include that Police thing they made after Until Dawn in that list. For what its worth I also played Little Hope this year, that's also pretty good. I adored the setting on that one.

It is done. My top 5 games from 2021. I'm still playing through Far Cry 6, which I don't see breaking the top 5 of this list. And I'm going to give The Forgotten City another chance in the coming days, so I may end up editing this list.....but if not, then here we have my top 5. Weird year. I don't 'love' any of these games. They're all good, some of them are great but I don't feel passionate about any of them like I might have done in previous years. That could well be more to do with my own state of mind than than the quality of these games however.

My full 2021 list is here. It includes everything I played to a significant degree. My list of 'beaten games' looks like this: 1. Steamworld Quest 2. The Medium 3. Edith Finch 4. Super Mario 3D World + Bowsers Fury 5. Maquette 6. The Division 2 7. Resident Evil 3 8. Genesis Noir 9. Prey 10. Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion 11. Titanfall 2 12. RE: Village 13. Superliminal 14. Dark Pictures: Little Hope 15. Last Stop 16. Portal 17. Trine 4 18. Twelve Minutes 19. Toem 20. The Artful Escape 21. Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye 22. Sayonara Wild Hearts 23. Halo 4 25. Guardians of the Galaxy 26. Dark Pictures: House of Ashes 27. Forza Horizon 5 28. Boomerang X 29. The Gunk A lot of not-2021 games on that list.

My boss sent me a £25 voucher to be spent in store. Naturally grabbed some Eshop credit.

In which case (like Ethan said), it's going to go the other way and the couple that clearly aren't right for one another are going to 'give it another go' and show their daughter that sometimes, families should stay together because........ Family Game of the Year!

Another thing, I'm not really sure that I'd want to play that game with my significant other. It's about a couple admitting they're probably better off alone right. Maybe it speaks to my own issues, but I don't need that directly in mine and my partners face .

Sorry, I have the means I just don't have the co-op partner. Which is why it's similar to B4B to me. All the will in the world I can't get my brothers interested in playing anything that isn't Rocket League or Call of Duty.

Hot Wheels looks super fun. My nephew got it for Christmas and I think once it hits a more appealing price point, I'll be jumping in with him. Not played a Far Cry game since I finished Blood Dragon, but I've got this sudden urge to blow shit up and upgrade my hunting bow (they have that right?) so I guess this is the game I'm playing for the next 4-5 weeks.

Got a few games here. I'll start from the beginning... Gato Roboto - Cute cat-based Metroidvania. I played most of this one over the course of a few days at the start of the year. Everything was going swimmingly until I got to the end-game boss. Hours, literally hours of my life spent trying to beat this fucker before I ultimately decided it just wasn't worth it, and rage-uninstalled it. Not gone back to it. Scarlet Nexus - I went into this one hoping for exciting combat and some cool cut-scenes. It delivered on the latter but the former I found to be a little underwhelming. I got maybe 1/5 of the way through (I heard it's actually surprisingly long?) before I decided I didn't have the time to give to the game and haven't gone back. That being said, it's on Gamepass and I could see myself giving it a second look. Game Builder Garage - Oh Nintendo. There's something truly incredible about GBG, but as is so often the case with Nintendo games, their inability to figure out the online component utterly ruins the end product. GBG is no different in this regard. They made something amazing with the core game, and then failed to deliver on even the most basic of online features; the ability to browse other peoples creations in-game. This is the studio that made Mario Maker (a series not without it's own online issues), you'd think they'd understand the importance of letting people download and share their creations in-game, but nope. For many people the promise of GBG wasn't that they'd be able to create their own levels, it was that they could download, play and learn from others. Unfortunately Nintendo makes that almost impossible, and in the process makes GBG a much weaker product. Turns out Game Builder Garage left a bigger impression on me than I originally thought.

If I could dedicate as much time as I used to to games, I'd throw the cash down in the knowledge that I'd have more to look forward to in the future, but atm that sort of money just doesn't make sense when I've also got work and family stuff. As for the games in your list, Biomutant is a game I'm probably going to play when it hits gamepass/goes sub £10 in a year or two. Everything about it looks cool, and I've heard it's fine. Fine is um...fine. House of Ashes is my favourite entry into that franchise. They've perfected their formulae IMO. The Forgotten City is one that I just couldn't get into when I got around to it a few months ago. That being said, I've still got the itch, and I can see myself going back in. That's what happened with Outer Wilds and it ended up becoming one of my favourite gaming experiences to date. It Takes Two fits into a similar slot to that of Back 4 Blood for me. Super interested in trying it, I just don't have a means of playing it.

It's been a long year and I don't know about you but there's a laundry list of games that I've been meaning to play, but for one reason or another, just haven't been able to find the time (or console in some cases) to actually play them. What games from 2021 that you most regret not getting around to? I'll go first. Deathloop - PS5 Deathloop (and the game below) just aren't available on a console I own. It sucks, but I'm sure as hell not in a position to spend £500 on a console for just one game, and as such, I'll wait for this to hit Gamepass in 2022. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart Unlike Deathloop, I doubt I'll play this any time soon. Which is a real shame because this is the perfect game for me at the moment. Something I can kick back and relax with; no stress, just colourful fun from beginning to end. Inscription - PC I'll be honest, I don't know much about this game but *everyone* seems to be falling over themselves to talk about how insane this game is. I'm getting some big Obra-Din vibes off of the discourse around it. I imagine it'll make the hop over to consoles at some point, but until then I'll patiently wait. Back 4 Blood - PC, XBOX, PS5 Back 4 Blood is available in places that I play games. Unfortunately the big reasons for my wanting to play it is also the main reason why I haven't played it. My life just doesn't fit into this sort of game anymore....but if it did I'd probably have had an amazing time playing this game with my friends. Moncage - PC, Mobile Finally we've got Moncage, a little indie puzzle box game that again, just isn't available in places where I play games. It's coming, but it's not here just yet. Maybe 2022 will be kinder to me in this regard. ------ And there we have it. My list of the games I most regret missing in 2021. A 'Potential' game of the year list of sorts. What makes your list?

The Gunk A few technical issues aside, I really enjoyed my time with The Gunk. It looks pretty, it has a nice charm to it and it's got an enjoyable enough core mechanic (sucky suck suck) that the 4-5 hours it took to complete breezed by. Won't win any awards, but yeah, not a bad little game this.