Thursday Next

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?

Dead Space (remaster) Never finished the original, I think a Final Fantasy came out, which distracted me, and then a new console dropped, and before I knew it, the moment had passed. It's as good as I remember it. I'm playing through with just the plasma cutter and really, it's so satisfying and effective that it didn't need any extra weapons (except maybe the flame thrower for the wee bug things that swarm). The stomp feels so heavy somehow. Love everything about this game. Combines the best of Event Horizon and Aliens for some great scares and action. Now that Horizon Call of the Mountain is done, looking to focus on getting this completed.

Horizon: Call of the Mountain My first PSVR2 game, and what a strong start! My room is a little small, so I can do standing, but not room scale (not sure how much difference that would make, I could still turn around and reach for handholds etc). The graphical leap from PSVR is amazing, really feels like you are in a AAA title, rather than a pared down VR port. The machines feel huge compared to how they appear in game, really makes them feel intimidating. The movement, especially the climbing works brilliantly, walking is achieved by pumping your fists like you are running which makes sense and didn't cause me any motion sickness (also got counted as steps) there's also an option for sticks to move to, but the jogging worked fine for me. Combat is fun. Feels like you are in control, but there is a lot of aim assist making sure you hit targets (this is a good thing given the lack of crosshairs and difficulty in aiming a bow irl). Story is ok, good enough to move the game along, a few cameos from recognisable characters is good, esp. Blameless Marad, nice to see the spymaster up to stuff outside of the main game. There's lots of fun little easter eggs chucked in too, like if you pick up pan-pipes and hold them to your face you can play a little tune, there's a couple of caves with a brush and paint pots to draw on the walls. It's all just great, fun, immersive stuff. If you have PSVR2 this is an essential.

I love how random DQ references pop up sometimes...

Similar to the RolLed TV from LG. A good way of shrinking products until you need them bigified.

Oh right... It doesn't even do that? That does feel like a bit of a miss.

I kind of like the idea that there is no external morality system and that the things you do to people (good or bad) just change how they specifically react to you. It reflects real life a little better and relies on the individual to internalise their moral choices.

The man talks a lot of sense. Plus, if it still has weapon durability, I'm not touching it.

Ooof, man, I'm sorry it didn't work for you. It's so good when it works.

Huh... Maybe NMS needs an update? I've been playing Call of the Mountain and it is amazing.

They are just so grabby, and Sekiro (to my recollection) doesn't really have a hard-counter for grabs (especially not that early in the game). As well as the grab being tough to dodge, and dealing a tonne of damage, and possibly tossing you off the side of a cliff, it also means fewer opportunities to do poise damage because you aren't blocking etc.

I love Sekiro, I think the first Ogre dude you fight in the stocks is a major skill-check that is a bit unbalanced. Once you get past that bottleneck things do open up a bit more.

This looks really good. Has a real sense of depth and perspective.

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God of War: Ragnarok Got the platinum on this one. Game did a great job of developing the characters further. I'm not massively fond of Atreus still, but tend to struggle with child actors generally. Looking forward to seeing how they continue to develop Kratos' character I think this game does pretty much everything right, except that you cannot skip cutscenes. I like the metroidvania-esque unlocking exploration tools, the combat feels good, the voice acting (young actors aside) is great, the post game content feels meaningful enough, and there are some challenging optional bosses. The only thing that I feel is a bit clunky sometimes is weapon switching and arrow switching. There are a couple of bosses/challenges that require swapping between types of arrow/weapon element and (for arrows in particular) cycling through them feels a bit hit-and-miss. I'd prefer a "hold button to switch" system like Horizon has.

It's also all over TikTok and if your game is meme-able on that platform you are probably going to be feeling pretty good about your chance for getting a lot of installs.

Where are the feathers?

Yeah, same same. Elden Ring and Ragnarok. Not sure which I prefer, but both are my top games of the year that I recall.

Bit late to this but... Lady B AI is easy to break. Attack - Side dodge repeat and she is toast.

Elden Ring Got the platinum. Looking forward to the DLC. Not my favourite FromSoft game (that title goes to Sekiro), but still deserving of its GOTY.