Thursday Next

So I totally think they've ripped off a lot of Pokemon stuff, and as an IP lawyer, I think that is NotCool™, but I also think that is a fight for Ninty/The Pokemon Company to have (or not) at their discretion. If they think it's problematic, they are quite capable of putting on their big-boy-pants and taking on the devs themselves. Nothing weirder than people defending corps against other corps.

MWIII Solid Call of Duty fare. The open combat missions, where you are able to navigate an open area, find weapons and equipment on-site and tackle objectives in your chosen order is a nice innovation feels like a sort of PvE Warzone, the rest is the usual tightly executed shooty-bang gameplay you would expect. Full disclosure, for those who don't know/forgot I still work for ABK, so take that into account before making any purchase decisions. AC:Mirage next.

There are no status or elemental affects in FFXVI at all. It annoyed the heck out of me too. It just feels really dumbed-down. If you check out the reddit/YT vids you can see people chain together impressive looking combos, but the game in no way encourages this behaviour. FFVIIR at least kept elemental affinities, weapons had pros and cons in terms of magic/physical attack, other effects like materia growth etc, in FFXVI there is one number associated with your weapon, the bigger the attack number the better weapon, at least there's a transmog system so you can pick your prefered unga-bunga look...

AC6 Got the platinum on this one today. Absolute banger of a game. Loved the development of the story over the multiple play-throughs. Some minor annoyances, like not tracking on the level replay what collectibles you are missing, and some utterly opaque requirements to "S-Rank" levels, but those are minor quality of life things rather than huge fundamental issues with the game. Hope we see more AC games soon as this was my first and I loved it! Up next... MWIII.

Don't want to build your hopes up but...

I love that you can just throw shit at enemies, like empty weapons, feels very John Wick. Pew pew click, throw gun, pick up new gun, pew pew pew... such a satisfying loop.

Hey Cowboy, nice to see you again. Mine would be... AC6, cos I'm a From fanboy. FFXVI. Horizon: Call of the Mountain. Dead Space. Pikmin 4.

Armoured Core 6 Beat my first playthrough of AC6 at the weekend. Started tidying up the missing logs, chests, etc. and then I'll crack on with NG+/++.

Don't you already have a Steam Deck? Is the new one that big of a leap?

FF16 Enjoyed this one. Will probably shoot for the plat since I am an FF nerd. My only complaint really is that the combat went a bit too actiony, the complete lack of statuses and elements took a lot away for me.

You mean Meyoothos?

I too, am looking to fire my rubicon. Need to finish FF16 first, and I still have Jedi Survivor waiting to be played...

Yeah, it just feels like they use the same voice actor (or give the same direction) for all these games. It's all soft spoken, slightly dreamy/wistful delivery of lines that amount to "When I was a kid I told that person I hated them when we had a fight. I regret that now." and then some solid, reliable bloke will pop on the line being all "Hey, hope everything is ok, it's important to explore all your emotions while fixing the pump that is powered by berries for reasons." Basically, I kinda miss GLADOS.

I'm enjoying clockwinder, but it is a bit twee and saccharine. Reminds me somewhat of Maquette(sp?) in its style and storytelling.

I used to think this about the story telling in Quantic Dream games, but then you see the number of people who seem to think that Star Wars is not a story about antifa, that Space Marines are the "good guys", or that Fight Club is a blueprint of how to be cool and I think, "maybe it's not possible to set the bar too low".

Forspoken Mixed feelings about this game. I like the characters, the writing is decent, the world building is great, the combat (eventually) is really satisfying. The pacing however is all over the place. There are four elements (for want of a better word) you start with the ability to sling rocks, and unlock more elements (fire, water, and weird) as you go. I'd say that the pacing goes roughly: 1st hour, no powers, walking around NYC, pointless exposition; 2nd to 4th hour, one power. Explore the magic world, defeat first proper boss; 4th to 5th hour, two powers. Learn about enemy elemental weaknesses etc defeat 2nd boss; 5th to 5th and a half hour, defeat third boss, unlock third power; 5th and a half to sixth hour, defeat 4th boss unlock final power. At this point you immediately hit the final act against the big-bad. You never really get to muck around with the 4th power, explore the world, get juiced up. Then credits roll and it's post-game mop-up time. You spend at least half the game hobbled, with access to up to half your skill set, which is a real shame, because when you have access to all the traversal tools and different combat abilities, the game really shines. I might come back to it at some point, but to be honest with so many other games to play...

I see. I still hate it. lol.

It's PS5 compatible? Or they just borrowed a PS5 controller? Looks comfy. "Spatial Computer" lol. "We aren't late to VR/AR, we're the first to make a SpAtiAl CoMPuTeR."

How?

I've since looked it up and there's no missable trophies so I assume they are referring to like flavour/lore style errands that you can do. So I think I will press on and not worry about it, but it's a super unhelpful thing to be told in an open world game!

Forspoken did this thing where it said "make sure to do everything before leaving as some stuff won't be doable later" right when you leave the first settlement, and it has crippled my enjoyment of the game. I know this is a me thing, not a the game thing, but still I feel like I can't do anything in case I trigger the thing that means I miss stuff. lol.

Dead Space Remake I never got round to finishing this when it first came out, so was glad to finally get it done. Everything looks and sounds great. Isaac's stomp still feels nice, heavy and satisfying. Played on normal and it wasn't too much of a challenge. Did the "one gun" trophy, just in case I decided to go for a second playthrough and collect all the trophies, but I've got too much else to play at the moment. Difficulty becomes trivial once you unlock the heavy blades upgrade for the plasma cutter and can stun-lock everything into submission. Really enjoyed getting back into this game's lore. Hope they do 2 and 3 too. Never played 2 and am on record as loving 3.

Forspoken Done with Dead Space, before I jump into Jedi Survivor I'm giving Forspoken a go. It's really tough not to jump to Jedi, Forspoken is taking a lonnnnnnngggggggg time to get going. I don't mind the back and forth sassing between Frey and Cuff, what I do mind is that I feel like I've been playing for a few hours now and I'm still being locked into walking around while people exposition at me. I have had about half an hour where I was allowed to run around, parkour a bit, fight some things, and collect some materials, before I was dragged off for a bunch more exposising. I get the main story beat. A Thing That Happened has happened. The world is full of monsters and bad stuff. Humans are clustered in the few remaining safe settlements. None of this is rocket surgery, let alone brain science. Just let me parkour around some more and do magics on creatures. Please! Oh one specifically weird thing, some of the transitions are... choppy. For a game that likes to take your hand and walk you excruciatingly slowly through story beats, there is a bit early on where you are captured by the locals in the magic world. You walk up to a castle, see some guards, shout "Hi, it's me, the protagonist!" and then... the screen just goes black and then you are in hand cuffs with guards forcing you to the local courthouse. It's such a hard cut that it felt like the devs had no idea how to get someone who can throw magic rocks and do magic parkour to be captured by a bunch of mundanes with pointy sticks that they just sort of dodged it. No like "You have been throwing rocks at monsters for the last half an hour, why not throw some at these clowns?" and "No way, throwing magic rocks at monsters is ok, but I won't hurt people, let's go along with them, I'm sure they can be reasoned with." or whatever, just, she's in handcuffs now, w/e, deal with it. Really discombobulated me.

House of the Dead, but Resident Evil... Why not?