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Came in from work and found the game had been posted through the letterbox. Simply Games does it again. I've put an hour into it but there's nothing too exciting happened yet. There's been a fair few tutorials though and i'm hoping they start dying down a bit. The day 1 patch isn't up yet so i'm having to put up with the English voice acting. There's been quite a range of dialects that i've heard. So far i've come across English, Welsh and Scottish. *gets back to playing*

I've put a few hours into it now and here are a few thoughts. I love the visual style. I was never big on the way Xenoblade looked and I detested how the characters looked in X. The anime style is much more to my liking. The game looks lovely on the TV but it's pretty rough looking on the Switch screen. The game looks to have taken a big resolution hit when playing undocked. I love cutscenes in games and this hasn't disappointed. This may annoy some but the game has been very cutscenes heavy so far. Personally I love it as it's setting the story up nicely. Fans of anime should really like what's on show here as there has already been some OTT, action heavy cutscenes, complete with some hype inducing music. Im actually quite glad that the day 1 patch isn't available yet as I'm quite liking some of the English voice acting that's on offer. Rex is a bit annoying but I love the voices of Pyra and Nia. Nia especially had me laughing when after a battle she said "I'm knackered!" in her Welsh accent. I've been quite surprised to see that there's swearing in the game. No F bombs but there have been a few swear words been said by various characters. Despite being a few hours into the game, the game is still dropping tutorials on me. There is a CRAZY amount of stuff to get your head around. If you've played the other games them some of this stuff you will probably pick up quite quickly. I'm currently level 9 and about to head into the next area...

2017 is coming to an end. Nintendo did good, Sony did good, Microsoft maybe, EA can fuck right off. Many great games have been released this year and I'm looking forward to reading about all your favourites It may be a little too early for some to choose their game(s) of the year, but why not create a thread already. Do whatever you want. Simply name your game(s), post a ranking or write a lengthy essay about why Breath of the Wild is your favourite game this year

Avengers: Infinity War trailer drops tomorrow!

Assuming we're not going to do an official ranking, I'll just say a few words about the ones that have had the most impact on me. Zelda: Breath of the Wild - This game utterly blew me away. I appreciate it even more after playing the also-very-good Skyrim; how, in Zelda, you can just climb over any surface and go wherever you like in the huge overworld. It's an outstanding piece of software. Ultimately, however, it simply didn't deliver what I know a 3D Zelda can. My favourite parts by far were the four "traditional" dungeons and I hope the series goes back to the OOT/Wind Waker formula - perhaps a bit bigger if it serves the design, but not copying open world games so closely. Alchemic Dungeons - I know some may think this is a bad game, but nothing captured my mind this year more than this iOS port. It's frustrating, unfair and luck-based, but the combination of it being turn-based (untimed too) and the way it continually asks you to make crafting decisions made it utterly addictive to me. I've flipped open my 3DS to play this whilst I listen to the radio many a time. Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap - If quality matters over quantity, this is a contender. A retro classic perfectly refurbished. I admit there's not really enough substance for it to be GotY material, but this one really resonated with me. Etrian Odyssey V - I've only just finished this game but, quite possibly, I enjoyed it more than anything else. It's maybe not my game of the year, as it really just refines an existing idea to perfection, but it does so very, very well indeed. Super Mario Odyssey - My real GotY. This game ticked every box for me. It was impressive, as in taking advantage of the current gen, but also instantly recognisable (and playable) from its 3D Mario predecessors, particularly 64 and Sunshine. It's been described as "open world", but it didn't go too far in that regard and in my opinion really just has large levels. The main story was perfectly scripted and playable, with loads of extras in the post-game. For me this was pretty much perfect, and everything I want from a 3D Mario.

I absolutely love this game. Early stars were so easy but the end game is really getting to explore and ferret around. I can see a lot of younger gamers trying to finish this being like many of us trying to finish Mario 64, a huge undertaking! Currently at 810 moons... Really starting to slow down and only picking up say 5 or 6 moons each time I play. So many levels that I've said "wow, I'm glad I don't have to do that again!" but I don't hate them or anything. They're just hard as nails!

Completely agree. Great set pieces, relentless enemies you have to flit around, fast fluid shooting which Two Tribes are not afraid to shake up the formula of and downright fun. Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

I have been watching all of the MCU movies in order (I'm hoping) and I'm really into them. I've loved them all except for Age of Ultron and Iron Man 3. Age of Ultron was just weirdly boring. It had the action but everything else was quite bland. Loved Scarlet Witch though. Iron Man 3 just wasn't my cup of tea at all. I need a Black Widow origin movie. She seems to have the most going on in her past and yet no movie??? Black Panther is awesome and I'm looking forward to his movie. Guardians Vol. 2 was good but Yondu was my favourite character so -_- haha. I'm on Doctor Strange now and then Spiderman Homecoming next week when I get money to buy the Blu-ray! Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

You don't need to worry about needing to play the first game. It appears to be like Final Fantasy, in that you get nods to the other games ( such as enemies and character names ) but the actual stories are completely separate.

I don't know how much the patch improved things as I only played it after downloading it but I can say that although the frame rate is jarring at first it does get smoother the deeper you go out into the game. It could be that the reviewers who were negative on it had already played it on other platforms and so didn't play through the entire game again on Switch and so were just judging it on the admittedly choppy opening sections. I still really enjoyed the game and don't feel like my opinion would be any different if I hadn't encountered the technical issues but it is quite a short game (around 5 hours) so you might want to wait until it drops in price a bit.

The IGN footage looks very solid. See for yourself.

There are a few moments like that in every 3D Mario - cleaning the eel's teeth in Sunshine springs to mind! I don't know why we play them really!

I'm starting to get a bit bored by my current job. It's not that the tasks aren't interesting but the future of the site worries me, it seems to be completely stuck at old software engineering regimes without the wish to move on to newer technologies (still working on mainframe, which is alright but also so limited). I want to try out something new but I lack the experience with the new tech that other companies or departments within my company need - .NET especially. I can code in Java and has learned some C# (those two are very similar) but still need to have more experience with the framework which is hard to get without some proper training / tasks. So yeah, I'm feeling a bit stuck now. I was at an interview a couple of weeks ago. They thought that the learning curve of .NET framework would be a bit too steep for me which is hilarious to say the least: I have a master degree in mathematics, I have taken a professional master in software engineering alongside a full-time job without delay, and I work with pensions which is not really the easiest topic to get into. I almost sighed at that point, I think I've proven that it's alright to throw a steep learning curve at me.

I'm still slowly working my way through One Piece. I think I'm on episode 325 so still quite a way to go!

I just have to chime in to say that Spider-Man Homecoming experience was the shittiest thing I have done on VR so far.

I ordered it. I'm willing to give the series a go.

Oh, so that's how his videos ended up in my feed. I was going to post this as well. I'm a total genwunner so I have to go with the OG and go with Giovanni, I liked his twist in Red/Blue. Runner up is probably Cyrus, the guy was nuts and just decided to hang out in the Distortion World and if it counts, N. I guess he was more of a rival though.

So I'm actually starting to feel like my old self again as I used to be in school when it comes to my love life. It's kind of weird. I've started being flirty and I've even winked at a few ladies I've liked and they've smiled back. All I need to do now is actually speak and ask them out for a drink or something, haha. Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

No major changes, but an awful lot of drops and rises in averages. As @Nicktendo noted, he finally got a second placing! Imagine ending the year with that gap!? Close call. We're getting to the home stretch now, and it might seem like the results are all but decided, so in a possible catastrophic move, I present to you. Glen-i's Disastrous December Death Themes! I hope you're ready for completely unnecessary, gimmick-y themes that no-one will ever like. Because I sure am! And we're doing them all month. This first theme is based on an idea from @Dcubed Next League Night: 30th November 8pm Room 1 @BowserBasher is host @Glen-i @BowserBasher @martinist @punio75 @viceview51 As you no doubt must have noticed, this week's gimmick no-one asked for is Smart Steering. This is completely mandatory and must be used. Don't think I won't notice, because I will check all of the replays for that antenna and if I see someone not playing ball, they'll come last for that race. And just to cover my bases, here's how you turn on Smart Steering. Alternate Parts P-Wing - Use the Circuit Special Cyber Slick - Use the slick tyres Wario Wing - Use the Plane Glider Sign up Now!

Good games this week. I actually came SECOND for once!! This isn't over yet @Glen-i and @RedShell Just one highlight from me this week.

Here are the results. GP1 GP2 GP3 Table and theme will be up soon. Especially the theme In the meantime, here are mine and @Dcubed's highlights. He's on the left, I'm on the right. @viceview51 and @punio75 also have an unfortunate moment here.

I'm on 9... Zelda, 1-2 Swicth (ugh), MK8 Deluxe, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Street Fighter II, ARMS, Splatoon 2, Mario Odyssey. There's another one in there which I've forgotten. Edit: Kingdom Battle! Planning on picking up Skyrim this week. Then DOOM before Xmas, Xenoblade 2 is coming for Xmas (thanks, mum). Then there's the other 11 e-Shop games I've purchased... I like my Switch.