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Just read over at Eurogamer that CD Projekt Red explained why they went first-person. They don't have to explain or justify anything. If they think FPS is the way to go for Cyberpunk 2077 then that's how it's going to be. I don't understand what the big deal is.

IN!

So, i finally took the plunge and bought myself a Switch. Been meaning to for a while, but finally on-board. Bought it on Tuesday from our "lovely" friends at GAME. Bought a pre-owned one as it was the only one they had with the grey controls. They said it was pre-owned, but everything in-box was still wrapped up and sealed in the original packaging, so can't complain for getting it for £240. Have also bought a copy of Breath of the Wild (yeah, i have the WiiU version but never got around to playing it properly), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Kirby Star Allies. Also downloaded Fortnite, it's nice being able to play this without the PS4 fans going into take-off mode. Codes been updated on my profile.

I doubt there is a particularly big backlash, just as usual the vocal minority. I have absolutely no issue with it being in first person, it’s a viewpoint not a style of game.

Oh man, that cutscene when you obtain one of the Thangs! Nintendo should use the 80s aesthetic more often. Also, how's this for a hilarious attention to detail?:

Just a reminder that the demo is out today.

Could not give one single fuck if it's first person or third person. I've played enough games in both viewpoints and I think most gamers these days have experienced both, too. Plus, more importantly...if there is one single developer that should be given a free pass and full support over making the game that they want to make, it's CD Projekt Red. If they think first person is the way forward, then I'll back them 100%. I don't even consider it a controversial move and I'm surprised that there's such a backlash to it. I remember all the complaining about Metroid Prime being first person (oh my god, all of the "it's a first person ADVENTURE" arguments were hilarious) and I thought that gamers had moved on from that.

Something has come up, so I'm gonna have to sit this week out. @BowserBasher I'll need you to take a picture of the results screens. Try to get a picture of every race result, in case of disconnections. And definitely get the end results screen of each Battle. Cheers. Have fun!

It’s a bit of a mix really. The stages feel shorter in this and they generally involve completing a certain task, like defeating a group of enemies, guiding a ball to a specific location, getting through a stage with limited ink, popping balloons, etc... Weapons are also determined by the stage, sometimes you get a choice from a limited selection (which also effects difficulty/reward), sometimes you get no weapon at all! So yeah, it kind of feels like a collection of 80 mini challenges really. I’m enjoying it more than the standard single player, but a lot of that is probably down to the humour and vibe of the Octo Expansion. Check out the Treehouse Live video on this from yesterday, it should give you a better idea of what it’s like.

I'm still waiting for Rare to explain why they went first person for GoldenEye, when the film was CLEARLY in third person.

Apparently this is a 40+ hour campaign, with another 20 or 30 of sidequests. Huge game!

Made the mistake of watching this on Treehouse Live... and yeah, couldn't resist after that. I am actually enjoying it more than the standard single player so far though, there's some highly amusing dialogue in it: You can rock an afro as the male Octoling too, which is awesome!: Great vibe throughout the new locations as well, and there's lot's of cool stuff floating around in the stages, stuff like this: Anyone else pick it up?

Because it's now a 2019 title and that Direct was only for 2018 relea...oh wait.

This is my biggest issue with it so far. I'm finding the areas a bit too large for my liking and as such I think it's easy to get lost, especially if you haven't found the map for said area. Most of the Metroid style games that I have enjoyed in the past are the ones that have smaller areas and are a tad bit more linear. The ones I dislike are the ones that are too big for their own good. I'm hoping that Hollow Knight doesn't end up being the latter but at the moment it's not exactly winning me over, which is a shame considering how excited I was to finally play it.

As this is finally out courtesy of a Saturn drop following Nintendo's E3 Direct, I thought it was worth creating a thread for what is a spectacular game. It's a metroidvania style game, leaning more on the Metroid side of things, with a fantastic visual style, great soundtrack and brilliant gameplay. And it's an absolute steal at £10.99 on the eshop, with all current DLC and the final one coming later this year. Team Cherry have done a fantastic job at bringing the game to the Switch. I've been playing it docked and it runs silky smooth so far. There are some areas when I played in the PC that suffered from some lag due to what was in those areas do it'll be interesting to see if the Switch version dodges that or not. So yeah, kudos to Team Cherry (and Shark Jump who helped) for bringing the game over to the Switch. There's a nice challenge with the game; in both playing it on the PC and now the Switch, I've never felt that it was too difficult but does offer up a decent challenge as you progress through certain areas. And I love the mechanic of being able to retrieve your ghost if you can navigate back to it and defeat it. If not, you lose all of your coins. I've managed to get back to roughly where I was on the PC version now and I'm pressing on to see what else lies within Hallownest. Really interested to hear the thoughts of those playing it. I'd certainly put it in a similar level to the likes of Guacamelee and Ori and the Blind Forest for how good the game is. Can't recommend it enough.

I agree with most of that, i'm just not sure how you decide who is worst out of EA and Square. I went in relatively blind, the only rumour i saw and hoped for was Fallout 3/NV on Switch and in fairness theres always time for that Bethesda have been very good at supporting Switch, but even blind i felt a bit underwhelmed, it felt like the last E3 of a generation and next year we'll have Switch Plus, PS5 and Xbox 2 revealed

Just to remind everyone that a demo for this game is now out - I've downloaded it but haven't had time to give it a go. Has anyone here tried it yet?

Microsoft's show was fantastic. I spent most of it going "can't wait to play that...looking forward to that...that looks great...also can't wait to play that on PS4". It's probably made me even more unlikely to get an Xbox. Of the three console companies, I disliked Nintendo's show the most, purely for the overlong, overdetailed analysis of every seemingly little detail they've added into Smash Bros. How long did that seriously last for, because it felt close to half an hour. The Last of Us Part II was my game of the show. But yeah, Ghost looked awesome. Thought it was interesting was Sony tried to do, but the intermission bit was a clear misfire. Rest of the show was fine and I think the quality of the games will speak for themselves. Nioh 2 is a very nice surprise.

Whoa, Arcade Archives DONKEY KONG out of nowhere? It's the original arcade version and not a modified NES ROM this time.

Apparently the Treehouse has just confirmed that the game has an online mode. FINALLY!!!!

Not a bad way to end a day

I always found the levels in Single player really long and boring, so good to hear these seem to be snappier. That Alt + F4 got a good chuckle. I might have to give this a go. Maybe it'll make me actually decent with any weapon that's not a Roller. Spoiler: No, it won't

Sales is up! Might go for SF2 The Final Challengers. On the other hand Dragon Ball FighterZ looks great so might choose that one as my Switch fighter. Plus I still have some backlog to catch up on!

Up until about 30 seconds ago, I thought this was DLC or a sequel to Shovel Knight, but it isn't is it?

I agree. In fact, this game reminds me of Super Metroid rather than Fusion or Zero Mission, which will be music to the ears of some, but not to me. I've defeated two bosses so far. By this point in Fusion I'd have got into a good rhythm of upgrading my missiles and energy tanks, but in Hollow Knight, I still don't feel very capable. Also, I don't want people to think there's something wrong with my eyes after what I said about Battle Chasers, but a pet peeve of mine is "arty" lighting in modern games that doesn't aid visibility. Only the area around the player character is well illuminated, and I've fallen into many a pit by just not seeing them until it was too late. It's not like I can't see it at all, but you have to concentrate too much. It does seem to be a strong characteristic of this game. The difference between left and right can be crucial, but there aren't usually any subtle clues as to which one is best.

Not saying it hasn't worked before, just responding to the Goldeneye jab.

I don't mean its not technically possible and that's the problem. I mean that its something Epic have agreed to with Sony and on a technical level they are the ones who have implemented it, that's all.

Yeah, I admire the dexterity of players that are able to use it mid-gunfight, it's pretty impressive to see someone basically constructing an elaborate shield in real-time. But it's definitely not for me. #toooldforthisshit

Checked this out in portable mode yesterday, and man... Found it to be pretty much unplayable! Small screen combined with big world map/draw distance = can't see shit. Text is basically illegible as well. Anyway, played a few more games docked after that, and I have to say I think it's actually starting to click for me now. As someone that traditionally doesn't care for stealth gameplay mechanics, I find myself enjoying taking that approach in this. Sneaking around more and being patient has also improved my performance quite a bit, so I've been making it to the later stages of matches more often, and that's definitely when things get much more interesting. Still not a huge fan of the building feature, in fact, I think tactically it's better not to do it (unless you really need to) as it just gives away your position to everyone else. I prefer to use the existing terrain for cover, and find that I get ambushed or sniped far less as a result. Speaking of sniping, I was trying to get a kill using a sniper rifle yesterday (as it was one of the daily tasks) but it took me quite a while, as the low frame rate on distant players is super jarring! Got there in the end though, funnily enough on someone who had just revealed their location by building themselves a nice little tower. It was fun watching all of their collected items (they had a lot) sliding off it afterwards.

That's basically the reason. I've seen plenty of people abandon plans to play it on Switch because of this, so mission accomplished as far as Sony "For the players" is concerned.

From best to worst for me: 1. Microsoft: Tons of games, lots of exclusives, big reveals, very few bits that dragged and a tease about next gen. Easily the best conference. 2. Ubisoft: Tons of games. Tons of variety, hitting every genre, something for everyone. Nice presentation flow to it. 3. Bethesda: Good showing even if they took 15 minutes to actually show gameplay. Disappointing how it was just logo reveals for Doom Eternal, Youngblood, Starfield and Elder Scrolls 4. Nintendo: They would have done well to rename this a Smash Bros Direct and set expectations going in. Terrible lack of reveals other than Smash and a couple of others. It would be 100% Nintendo to have a Direct in two weeks time and show off more stuff. 5. Sony: The same games we've been seeing for years now. We'll probably see most of them again next year too. I'm sure they'll be great, but as a conference, boring. The format was an utter disaster. One note in terms of genres as usual. 6. EA: Horrible conference format, it felt a mess. From the Respawn reveal to the C&C demo, just bad. Even Anthem their big game was poorly presented. The Madden champion on stage was utterly pointless. 7. Square Enix: This really didn't need a conference, though I appreciated their move to a Direct style format. I wish/think more of the above will be going that route in future. Sony especially.

There's fast travel in the game. You can find Stag beetle stations where you pay a small toll (50 Geo or so) then ring a bell and you can fast travel between regions and Dirtmouth. IIRC, the first one you can find is not far from the first boss, in the same area as a bench (it's to the left of this). I had a frustrating go this morning. In an area I'd not been in previously and was struggling to work out how to progress. Died and then died again and lost the 1000+ Geo I'd collected and eventually figured out that there was a room where I'd gone right but not left going that direction put me where I needed to go. Clearly needing more sleep @Hero-of-Time, hopefully it starts to gel a bit more for you. I remember feeling well out of my depths when I first played it and even now I still am, as evidenced by my play this morning. I'd definitely recommend buying the compass and the thing that lets you see where you are on the map as aids to start if you haven't already. Even then, I do agree it's all to easy to lose your way. It's very much reminding me of Ori and the Blind Forest in that respect in how areas seem to blend together and so it's hard to figure out where you are. I do like having the map a quick button press away to help offset that some what. Hopefully it gets better for you.

Looks like mainstream news outlets are now picking up on the story of Sony blocking players accounts. Both BBC and Sky News are reporting on it. This is certainly going to put some heat on Sony to sort out this mess,

Interesting take on unlocking characters. I quite like it.

Treehouse just announced that the "Challenge Mode" portion of the expansion pack is coming out today. Progressing in it gets you a few new Blades.

Some people over on Era have been keeping track of what have been the most popular Youtube videos during the course of E3. No surprise as to what is coming out on top. I was surprised to see how high Halo was. Maybe the series isn't as dead as I thought?

Looks like Formations are replacing the Pair Up mechanic? I guess different formations will give you different stat boosts. You can see them switch to an arrow formation at 1:33 of the trailer and the soldiers rush in. The stat boosts may become less effective if you lose these backup units. Feels a little Advance Wars-y. Edelgard looks like she has the Vantage skill. The menu also shows an option for Combat Arts so they seem to be returning from Echoes. Doesn't look like there's a weapon triangle. Archers can counter at close range. The red lines are enemies that are in range? I wonder if the castle is going to be similar to My Castle from Fates and you can customise it and this is where you can interact with your units, which they show in the trailer. Girl at the end looks like Tiki, but it's hard to tell for sure. That trailers gonna get watched a lot between now and Spring.

Started and finished Crash Bandicoot 2 today. Got all gems, as well. A much, much better game than the first one, which was great itself. The difficulty in the second installment is spot on. There's something for everyone: beat the game only collecting the crystals (necessary to unlock the bosses); not that challenging collect all gems; some of them can be tricky get all gold relics; not tried it, yet, but read that it's challenging (though not as tough as in the first game) Time to start the relic hunt But probably not today. Also: Look how cute he is

Ok, rewatching the trailer, reading some comments, and checking the info they released, I noticed a few things: There's a "formation" option on the action menu, meaning that troops may actually influence gameplay directly; "Magic" and "Attack" are different options, which is very curious. Usually, they're the same thing, with the exception being Fire Emblem Echoes (which had an entirely different system for items, equipment and magic). Seeing as we already saw weapon durability, it's unlikely this is a system like Echoes, so it's probably something entirely new. Maybe characters have healing/support spells, and the cleric/priest class has been discarded? Would make sense, if each character leads their army now; Other than Fódlan, we also have names like "Fergus", "Garg Mac" and "Leicester". Plus, you can see a tartan patter on a soldier for a couple of frames in one of the CGI scenes. The celtic theme is pretty much confirmed at this point; There are three important characters, one for each House... and they all have surnames. This is extremely rare for the FE series (there are 700+ characters in the series, and I think less than 10 of them had surnames up until now); One of the characters is clearly a player avatar... but they do not look like the main character at all. Rather, it's the lady called Edgelord Edelgard that seems to act like a protagonist during these scenes. Oh yeah, I'm excited for this game

Grim Fandango and Broken Age coming to Switch https://www.polygon.com/2018/6/13/17458132/grim-fandango-remastered-broken-age-nintendo-switch-e3-2018 I've only played part 1 of the latter, but it was fantastic, so will definitely pick it up again

I too was slightly disappointed to see the Direct end after Smash, but it's pretty clear now that this is going to be Nintendo's E3 strategy going forward. 1 big game, with lots of coverage for said game. It worked for Breath of the Wild, it worked for Super Mario Odyssey, and it'll definitely work for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. What they are doing with this version of Smash is absolutely insane, they've essentially created pretty much every Nintendo fan's desert island game. Will almost certainly be the biggest selling Smash Bros. title to date and no doubt one of the best selling games on Switch as well. Cannot wait. There has to be quite a few Nintendo Directs planned for the rest of the year though, I mean there's no way this is everything Nintendo have in the pipeline. But yeah, if that means announcements are spread throughout the year (and more importantly, reveals are nearer to launches) then I'm all for them holding back a bit at E3.

I find that stepping away from the saturation of news and leaks is so much better an experience. I used to live on forums, back to the N64 days, but just keeping up with headlines and not spoiling things make you enjoy it and appreciate it more. Even reading theories or fake news items can still give you an expectation. Not saying anyone here is doing that, just my experience of the last 5-6 years.

Just gonna post some gif's of some choice moments from the Challenger Videos. That Zelda one is my favourite. And that Link Between Worlds style looks amazing! Yeah, I'm buzzing with hype!

Awesome! I did think the English voice acting felt a little jarring in a Japanese setting, so I will definitely switch to subtitles!

There's going to be an E3 related sale starting the 14th.

Now that the direct has been shown, here are the characters you can use on Thursday. Mario Luigi Peach Bowser Bowser Jr. Larry Morton Wendy Ludwig Lemmy Roy Iggy Rosalina Daisy Inkling Boy Inkling Girl Link Villager Donkey Kong Wario Waluigi Mii Dry Bones Toad Yoshi Damnit, Sakurai...

You know, you kinda make it sound like a movie... Yes, RedShell is the Villain.