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After 80 hours the adventure is over. It took a while to get to grips with the last boss and when I finally brought it down the game decided to crash on the final cutscene! I took it on again and managed to get a Full Burst ( first time I've achieved that in the game ) which took off over half of its health and finished it off. I'm kinda glad it did crash, so I got to experience that special move. Despite its flaws and technical issues, I absolutely loved the game, especially the story. You have a massive world to explore in and an amazing story that drives you forward. It's pretty much given me everything I wanted that Zelda failed to deliver on. The voice acting is ropey at times but there is so much character and charm in the delivery that you end up falling in love with it. I play a lot of JRPGs but it's been a while since a whole cast of characters have been this great. Usually you end up with one or two characters who aren't developed or are just there to make up the numbers. I found this not to be the case with XC2. Each one of them has a good back story and a role to play. The soundtrack for the game is simply outstanding. Some of the tunes are used at just the right times in cutscenes, either to get you hyped or bring out some other emotion. After the disaster of a soundtrack in XCX, this is a true return to form. I can kinda see where the DLC may take place. There are one or two things that could be explored in future content and I may have to pick up the season pass once the substantial stuff arrives. The credits may have rolled but this is a game I can see me dipping in and out of for a while. There's plenty of Blades to still unlock and side quests to complete but for now I think I'll move on to something else. This is probably my favourite Switch game. I love the little hybrid but it's lacked a game like this to truly get my teeth into. It's been great for smaller titles, or games that you can jump in and out of, so it's been refreshing to finally get a game that lasts a good 80 hours that I can enjoy. More JRPGs, please! The Switch started strong at launch and has ended the year on a high with this game. Well played Nintendo/Monolithsoft.

Ha ha, Glen, you utter nonce!

I'm now halfway through the final chapter of the game. I gotta say, the length and frequency of the cutscenes from chapter 7 onwards puts Kojima to shame. They may as well have just scrapped the gameplay and made the thing an anime movie or series.

Me and @RedShell just had a game against ANOTHER NICKTENDO! What is this tomfoolery? Luckily we won and I splatted that fake mofo twice!

Reminded me of when I played years ago; you get one red shell and everyone comes streaming past you, just as you think you're doing well! Diabolical from me apart from a cheeky win on Ribbon Road, I played the first race trying to accelerate with R like Rocket League...still great fun!

With CPU's on, you can technically do a Team game with only 2 people. If you can jump on at around 7:30, I'll help you find out. Still, assuming no-one else is planning on jumping in at the last minute, here are the team setups. Team Red Shell @RedShell @Nicktendo @punio75 @martinist @Dcubed @Kaepora_Gaebora Team Blue Chameleon @Glen-i @BowserBasher @viceview51 @S.C.G @Clownferret The teams were chosen based on placings in the current table, except for Clownferret and Kaepora_Gaebora who have near to no presence in this mini league. I also placed Dcubed on the opposite team to me to prevent voting bias due to us playing on the same console. Oh, and here's the course schedule for the new page. BTW, Don't forget to turn Smart Steering off!

Did you just shoot down his bullshit criticism?

Just noticed the Hollywood Reporter article has been updated. It originally said it started as a card-collecting game that went on to be an anime but seems they've corrected that. Was worried for @Serebii's health.

I haven't considered that, because I fight like a man.

Ah, the Zelda arguments have started again. Quite fitting as the DLC is probably going to be fully revealed tonight and Zelda will no doubt mop up the awards. Seriously though, can we not do this again? Let those who like the game enjoy it. At the same time, those of us who didn't like it shouldn't be called out or belittled. If you enjoyed the game then that's great. If you didn't ( me ) then that's also fine.

Just a couple of highlights from me.

Also, before we start, @BowserBasher. Just in case someone doesn't show, (Which is always possible) if we don't have all 11 people by the time @S.C.G makes his fashionably late entrance, give me 5 minutes to reorganise the teams before starting.

Anyone who has not played the game since last week remeber TURN OFF STEERING ASSIST. I still had mine of and it doesn’t help.

I think thats going to be the problem for them. Once the initial excitement over a powerful new console has warn off they're still left with the same problem they had before this, lack of interesting software (and a fucking terrible dash!).

When I first completed this I thought it was in the good-not-great category... The more I go back to it and explore every mountain, every enclave, the more I experiment, the more I discover, I've come to think of it as a true masterpiece. This is all in spite of the fact that I'd have (like many) preferred a more detailed story and full blown dungeons with different themes. Taken as a whole, what the game achieves is astounding. Even now, after about 120 hours, I'm finding new things and the subtlety of the lore and history of the world is phenomenal. It's the closest Nintendo have ever come to realising the freedom and vision of the original Zelda concept. Playing Xenoblade 2 I'm constantly feeling desperate to climb rocks, branches, walls, zoom up waterfalls and glide over the landscape! I can understand some changes not being to everyone's taste, but you have to applaud the willingness to chop up and change up the Zelda formula and the sheer technical accomplishment (only played on Switch). Visually, I find the limpid 'plein air' stylings to be a perfect fit and perhaps the most accomplished look in the series - it has the otherworldly cartoonyness of windwaker, with a necessary level of detail and 'physical' realism to the world. It's like playing in a flipping Studio Ghibli film! The gentleness of the game's overall message and quiet philosophical inflection is something totally at odds with the sword wielding, monster killing adventure genre, and a kind of balanced sensibility that could only have come from Japan. (As an aside - Skyrim felt terribly clunky and soulless after this and I traded it within a couple of days!) What time is the game awards?? Can't wait

I don't see why. For me, if someone likes or dislikes a game, it has zero bearing on my own enjoyment. If a person thinks something in a game is garbage then so be it. I don't see the value in trying to shoot the person down with facts or statements that they clearly don't care about. Such things aren't going to change a persons mind, so why try to argue the point? It's like people take some kind of offence when another persons opinion doesn't match their own. This has been very obvious across various forums when this game gets discussed. I find the whole thing baffling.

The demo is available on the E-shop.

I'm looking forward to picking up and playing Phantom Breaker. I'm hoping I will be finished Xenoblade 2 this evening and then i'll be able to crack on with PB. Game looks amazing.

Season 4 will be available 29-12-2017.

Semi inspired by @Ashley looking forward into 2018 with a wishlist, it got me thinking about what are people's "moments" involving the Switch since it launched in March? I'm deliberately saying "moments" as it doesn't have to be a favourite; I imagine there are people who feel let down etc by the console as much as many of us feel it's been a brilliant launch so far! It certainly feels, however, that at the moment this forum is in a good place in terms of expressing opinions and not getting shirty about them, after all they are just that, our own opinions, so let's keep it clean! I was lucky enough to go to the Switch launch event with Ashley in January and honestly I felt somewhat underwhelmed by; I really wasn't sure if I was going to get one, especially at a hefty £280. However, I'm glad I did, the console has been a revelation for me and allowed me to continue gaming alot more than just a standard home console could have. I have two "moments", and both of them are positive. The first one is, on March the 3rd, once my wife and the little one had gone to bed, I plugged my headphones into the undocked console, switched it on...and continued playing Breath of the Wild. I still haven't quite got over the whole "you can play it at home or on the go" thing, but that first time realising that the game I had enjoyed on my TV was also in the palm of my hands...was brilliant. My second also involved Breath of the Wild, as it's my favourite game of the year and one of my favourites of all time! On the Sunday of launch weekend, still only about 10 odd hours in, I stumbled across my first stone talus. It bested me a few times while I tried to work out how to take it down, and then I saw the weak spot and went for it. My weapons were low powered, so it was quite a slog, and mid battle a rain and thunderstorm started, which made it even more epic. Of course at that point, I hadn't quite realised how deadly a thunderstorm could be... As I got it down to only a few blows left, and with only one heart left myself, I heard a strange crackling sound; thinking nothing of it I powered my way through, being one hit away from an unlikely victory in battle, I lifted my METAL weapon above my head...BOOOOM! I genuinely had no idea what had happened, I thought I was about to claim a dramatic victory only for both the stone talus and Link to be dead on the floor before the game over screen popped up. Obviously, I'd been struck by lightning and obliterated in the process. The game continued to astound me over 150+ hours. So, what have your Switch moments been this year?

It's a small thing, but I love how quick it is to wake > play. I'll pick up the Pro Controller, press the home button, sit down on my sofa, the tv will have switched on by itself and I'll be in a game, with zero lag or stutter, in seconds.

Strangely enough, there is some friendly fire going on. Red Shells and Blue Shells don't go for your own team, Lightning, Bloopers and Piranha Plants completely ignore your own team as well.

Oh come on, finish 2nd and we all get DC'd! Start from Ice Ice again I guess when everyone's back?

Breath of the Wild - It's by no means my favourite game, but it constantly staggered me. I thought the mountain atop the starting ridge was big, then I found the one at Lanaryu, then the Eldin one, then the one in the north-west, the one in the south-west etc. I had never played anything so impressive before. And as strange as it sounds, just relaxing in bed and playing arcade perfect Neo Geo games like Metal Slug. On a similar note, my third highlight is Nintendo simply feeling cooler this year. Just as the Neo Geo games give you so many options (Japanese/Western, blood/no blood etc), it feels like Nintendo has let its hair down. If there's a big indie release, we'll probably get it. If there is a game with a Japanese voice track, we'll probably have the option for that. For the first time in ages, I find myself not having any doubts whatsoever over the direction of the company.

OK, I'll have to do a bit of reorganising, bear with me a moment, @BowserBasher

Errm I haven't got all the Zelda parts so I've just gone with normal bits...also no idea whose mii that is but it isn't me haha, an imposter!!

I'll think about it...

I've mentioned this a few times, but I'd really like to see the proper sequel on the Switch's successor as a launch title. They now have experience with a big open world, so building a new one will probably be faster, but they still need to build a new one from scratch. That plus, in addition, in order to make the ultimate Zelda game, they need to design several of the best dungeons you can find in this open world. Plus the usual refinements. This could easily take another 5 years, which would probably be right on time for Switch 2. This would also give the Switch 2 a flying start, you don't want a Switch U, and obviously having Breath of the Wild as a launch game helped the Switch tremendously. That's not to say we can't have Zelda content in the meantime. Personally, I wouldn't mind a second season pass at all. Perhaps they could make another smaller top down game a lá A Link between worlds, made by a smaller team. Or even a spin-off.. Four Swords would be perfect for Switch. Plus there's the Zelda maker that a lot of people want. Personally I can see a lot of problems with a Zelda maker though.

No, actually. As long as you're friends with someone in the room, you can join. But you should add him anyway, he's an alright sort of bloke.

Well...triple-dip it is. First the originals on PS2, then the remasters on PS3 and now for PS4. Because why the fuck not.

Next N-Europe Splat-up: Tonight 9:15pm Players: @Glen-i @Nicktendo

@Lens of Truth it starts at around 1am tonight/tomorrow.

Wow!

While that is true, she is better known for her amazing singing performances in the MGS games. I wonder if it could be something Zelda related?

Switch had sold 2.5 million in Japan, PS4 life to date there is 5.5 million...what a turn around for Nintendo this year!

You're right, it probably doesn't change minds, but some criticisms are more valid than others and I think it's interesting and useful to discuss them.

Thanks, maybe got a bit carried away but potentially looking at going back into games journalism or starting my own site next year so kind of wanted to get the rust off of the wheels. Pyre is a great little game and would work so well on the Switch, not sure why Supergiant Games haven't put it out yet. Even if you only had 5-10 minutes, you'd be able to boot it up, play a Rite, speak to the other characters in your Caravan, etc. and then turn off without really missing much. It definitely lends itself to that way of play so hopefully they'll consider it as even I'd pick it up again just for that play style. I think if you go in to it and completely empty your mind of Bastion and Transistor, it'll click far better. I hadn't seen much of it, purposefully, and loved it as a result. Of course, it's hard not to compare to their other games but it's definitely another quality game by them. I tried to stay away from spoilers for LiS but the bottom line for it is that it's still LiS and doesn't feel worse off for a change of developer. You'll either love or hate the insult mechanic but it's still up there with the original game. I bought the deluxe version but I'll most likely be double dipping again if a physical release comes along. With the final episode of the 3 out on the 20th this month, hopefully they'll announce the physical early in the new year, around the time of the release of the bonus episode. As for Hellblade, it's one of those games where it can be frustrating, with some of the combat through some of the longer sections, but I felt the journey to the end was incredible. I played half of it with headphones and the other half without and I'd say you don't lose much without them but the depth of the sound design with them on is terrifying at times but takes the experience to another level. I have loved that there's been a steady stream of quality digital only/indie games this year. It's where I've found myself enjoying games the most this year, and for much of last, so I'm really interested to see what next year brings with that regard.

I'm back baby

I'm in tonight. +1 for Splatooning afterwards.

That levelling up paragraph can be said about any Zelda game though? You learn about the game mechanics and get better at the game. That's basic game design. Very confused. Ah well, the game's still boring.

Really looking forward to playing this early next year! Hopefully there's a new patch that fixes the sharpening in portable mode by then :).

Dad life, eh..? I think I'm in a pretty similar boat (and I wasn't even prepared to go to £25 ) but we'll see what happens. An extra few pound would get people Super Mario Odyssey so £34.99 feels like an extremely tough sell..

Just over five hours in now and I finally reached the first "Open Plains" moment where you can see the world sprawled out before you... ...then I ran into a high level enemy and died pretty quickly. I'm officially playing a Xenoblade game now!

They nerfed my RNG... Haven't got an exotic engram from 7 or 8 public events since I got back on D2 yesterday and everyone used to complaining about me constantly getting them all the time lol.

Cracking lists/write ups @Ganepark32. I still have yet to play Hellblade and LiS ( waiting for the physical release of this ) so I skipped those sections in case of spoilers. Pyre is another game that has slipped through the cracks, so thanks for the reminder.

Of the games that I've played this year that have come out this year: Breath of the Wild - My GOTY. Not much else to say that's already been said, it's just such a stunning return to form for a series that had began to stagnate. It's been a long time since I was so invested in a non story-driven single player game because Nintendo have managed to pull off such a compelling open world experience. I can easily forgive some of its minor flaws because how ambitious it is in its scope and execution. After playing it safe for so long with most of their franchises, it's so nice to see Nintendo take a big risk. Persona 5 - I'm only about 30 hours in, but have really enjoyed what I've played so far. Just like P4 it has a compelling story and fantastic presentation. I really like the improvements they have made to the battle system and dungeon system, which was the weakest aspect of P4. I prefer P4 though, probably because it was my first Persona game so it has a special place in my heart. Still, a must play for JRPG fans. Destiny 2 - I've made my thoughts clear on Destiny 2 in the D2 thread. In my mind it is the inverse of D1 regarding is strengths and flaws: strong story mode and vanilla content, lacking endgame and PvP experience. Newcomers to the series may not understand what the fuss is about, but it is a massive letdown to veteran fans. I personally don't think the game is shit, just thoroughly disappointing. Funnily enough, D1 was panned by critics whilst D2 was praised. Super Mario Odyssey - I've just managed to complete the main story and currently sitting at around 300 moons. The game is great in many ways and is full of charm, but not the 10/10 people are making it out to be. I've heard that is picks up more post-game but strangely the game doesn't seem to offer that much incentive to keep collecting moons beyond being a completionist. I think I've also heard that there are extra levels that get unlocked once you hit particular milestones, but the game doesn't make this obvious. Still, I'm having fun and will keep playing until I finish or get bored.

I imagine it will clean up most of the awards that get dished out towards the end of the year. Despite not loving the game myself, I can see why many do and why it will win many awards.

I thought this was a funny moment