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I think I'm even 2 months behind! So time for a bit of catch up. First I played and reviewed two games for the main site, Snakeybus which is a racing meets Snake highscore game and Infinite - Beyond the Mind which is a action/platform/run and gunner. Yesterday evening I've finished Bug Fables, but I will save these impressions for another review. I also started a couple of new games I haven't finished yet. Horizon Chase: Turbo is a game I picked up in the sale, and is great for a couple of races every evening. It has an amazing Outrun vibe, both in graphics and soundtrack. It's nice to play a racing game again. I found a cheap copy of Stern Pinball Arcade. It's a much more classic pinball experience compared to Pinball FX3, with realistic tables and no skills, quests or leveling up. But it does feature a couple of good tables like AC/DC, Harley Davidson and Last Action Hero. I find pinball games quite relaxing so it's nice to have another one. I finished another major PC game (more later). So it was time to pick a new main game. I have quite a backlog there with games that take op some time, and I was thinking maybe it was time to start The Witcher III. But the Resident Evil VIII reveal trailer came out and I figured that it is time to continue the Resi series. So I started Resident Evil 6, knowing that it may not be a great experience. I've put about 2 hours in Leon's campaign and the start isn't that bad. There were some tense moments in the opening bit, although the end of Chapter 1 was just one big shoot-out (which I believe is one of the biggest criticisms for this game). But there are two games I finished and want to talk about a bit more: Red Alert 3 - Uprising (PC) I love real-time-strategy, I love Command & Conquer and I especially love Red Alert. The first one was one of the first RTS games I ever played. I played Red Alert 2 a lot during high school. And Red Alert 3 got quite some hours when I was in university; playing it in co-op with a roommate. Uprising is the add-on for the third game and it introduces new missions, units and a Commander's Challenge. This latter I never finished up until now! Well, as you can see in the tweet above I completed all missions but I'm stuck at 59% completion. 100% can be achieved by finishing all missions under par time but for now I'm happy with just finishing it. Usually in RTS games I like to take my time, build up a base and then expand my army. I don't really have the speed or dexterity for rush tactics (which is the main reason most levels aren't finished under par time). But some missions really required some quick acting so they did prove to be quite a challenge! Luckily the game is such a joy to play that I didn't care about having to restart a mission a dozen times. The soundtrack is out of this world. The units are already over the top in Red Alert 3, but Uprising adds stuff like gigantic floating mech heads and tanks with grinders on them. I can understand that a lot of people don't appreciate the colorful, over-the-top game that Red Alert 3 is but I absolutely adore it. One of the great things is that the game still features full motion video cutscenes with tongue-in-cheek acting, something that even in 2008 when the game came out already was outdated. But to me it's a part of what makes the series great. Now that the Command & Conquer remake is out and gets pretty good reviews, and now it looks like EA is getting a little bit of their former glory back, I hope they breathe new life in the series. Or at least start working on a Red Alert 2 remake! Metroid: Samus Returns (Nintendo 3DS) After playing a couple of MetroidVanias lately I figured I wanted to play more of them. Metroid: Samus Returns was sitting on my shelf unplayed so that was an obvious choice, also because I wanted to play my 3DS some more. At the beginning I really had trouble going back to the low-resolution screen, but luckily the stereoscopic 3D in this game is excellent and made the graphics acceptable. It took me a couple of hours to get into the game, and I wasn't really sure if I liked it but after a while I noticed that I couldn't put it down. I kept wanting to see what was in the next area. For a MetroidVania it felt pretty linear, but it does a great job with giving you the feeling of exploration. Some battles are intense and some bosses tough as nails. It introduces some cool new mechanics such as a parry move, although after a while when you have some more advanced weaponry I hardly used it anymore and just blasted my way through everything. It's another thing this game does so well. You start out relatively weak but in the end you are just this all-powerful killing machine. It's a great remake, and I hope that next to Metroid Prime 4 we will get a new 2D Metroid as well in the near future.

I'm hoping for Pokémon Snap 3.

Erm @RedShell I also have 582 bells on Cinnabar... Literally just checked now lol

Yep, same vibes except arguably much worse in my opinion because of the leaked cutscenes a few months back fuelling the fire well before the game had even released. Again, though, I think it's a very vocal minority, because simply put the majority won't have finished the game at this point. People have also had their minds made up for months about certain scenes as a result of the leaks, and context for certain scenes is extremely important when it comes to storytelling in any medium, so of course those scenes being viewed out of context doesn't help in the slightest. Also doesn't help that expectations were sky high based on the first game and Naughty Dog's history of critically acclaimed and successful games, people were expecting a 10/10 masterpiece, no questions asked, but that just was never going to happen. I read an interview with Druckmann the other day where I think he nailed it: the problem with something this big, in a setting like the one we see in TLOU2, just narrows it's storytelling options the more that the series goes on. There are absolutely some problems that I had with this game that I mentioned before, and I don't think it will be for everyone, let alone fans of the first game - like Square Enix with Final Fantasy VII Remake, I think Naughty Dog took a lot of risks here that they didn't necessarily need to, but it was warranted by the story they were telling. I think it's got some serious pacing issues, amongst other things, but this game has had an absolute grip on me since finishing it on Monday night. It's not flawless, but I'll be damned (and lying) if I said that it's not one of the most intense, brutal, and gripping experiences I've had with any form of entertainment. And again, that's not going to be for everyone. And that's absolutely fine. But I think that the majority of the backlash that I've seen from the vocal minority (you know, those review bombing, insulting others for liking the game, and so on) is excessive at best, and borderline disgusting at worst. Neil Druckmann and the folks over there at Naughty Dog are handling it incredibly well so far, all things considered.

Some gameplay was teased in the New Game+ Expo 2020. Unfortunately, it was obscured by Suda's head. (starts around 1:12)

@Sméagol this was the state of your beach. At least they are practicing social distancing

No offense meant! I just mean that Min-Min seems useful in steady, plain terrain with clearly defined edges. Two properties that your stages avoid like the plague

Two new combat videos More info here

Played and finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps over the past week or so, I got as close to 100% as possible (no way am I touching that "finish the game without dying" achievement). Overall really enjoyed it, probably an 8+/10. The game sort of reminds me of Nintendo games in the sense that the devs there tend to focus on making sure the character is fun to control. You can tell they really focused on that in both Ori games because even though the platforming is floaty, the traversal is tons of fun, especially later in the game when you unlock loads of abilities. I did think the game was a tad formulaic and predictable, it didn't really do much new, at all. You never really get lost in the game, it's pretty clear exactly where you need to go at all times, so it's more of a watered down Metroidvania compared to something like Hollow Knight. I'm also really not a fan of them removing the checkpoint system from the first game. I thought that was a real shame, yes it makes the game more convenient but it removes all challenge and strategy. Combat was a lot more fun though and obviously the game looks stunning. Loved the ending, didn't see that coming at all. Overall, great game!

What're you talking about? I see nothing wrong with this gameplay footage. You get a good clear shot of Suda for 20+ hours, what more could you ask for?

What? You don't like Mesozoic Big Hole?

Err... It's out RIGHT NOW! https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/ninjala-switch/ Multiplayer servers go online worldwide at 3AM BST. Talk about a shadow drop!

Yeah, she's here too. Last nights stray shooting stars were a precursor @BowserBasher & @RedShell. It's also the start of a new zodiac month.. The star fragments are new. You get red cancer fragments.

Turns out I have Celeste visiting too. Thanks anyway though.

First day back cycling after resting my strained legs. Much easier today. Managed the longer of my 2 shorter routes (only do the long one on weekends) and only stopped to have a drink. Even managed the hill that I've not been able to do before. Bike maintenance may have played a part in the ease as well. The bike definitely felt better, with less rattles and clanks and a noticeably smoother ride. Splashed out on some decent brake pads as well and they took me by surprise on the first pull. Also, I never thought I'd have muscles that I'm proud of, but my calves look fucking ace. They're not all veiny and weird like a Tour De France competitor or anything, but they've got some nice curvature. Feels good man. Just got the rest to work on now...

Been a few days since I've been on this (either island). However I've loaded up tonight and I have Celeste on Cinnabar! Gates open until 9ish of anyone wants to stop by to see her for DIY.

I'll open now. You got 36 minutes

The thing with "the n word" is that white people will never be able to understand the weight it carries. We've never been on the receiving end of it, or any of the other prejudices that minorities face. For white people to say it is just a big no from me. As for black people saying it, that's up to them. They understand the weight of it, and whilst I personally wouldn't use it if I were black, it's not for me to dictate what they can and can't say. If it brings a kind of solidarity, then so be it.

Flick is on my island today if you want to pop over.

The whole 'n' word thing has always seemed a bit counterintuitive to me. When it comes to insulting words, it seems like you have two options: 1) Stop everyone saying it, and eventually it dies out. I guess there are hundreds of words like this throughout history that we don't use anymore, and thus don't have any power behind them. 2) Reclaim the word in a positive way until the meaning no longer works as an insult. The gay community successfully reclaimed the word 'queer' this way for example. Trying to reclaim the 'n' word while at the same time stopping others from using it seems to be an unworkable combination of the two, where you end up with the word still having the power to insult, whilst remaining a common word. You end up in a ridiculous situation where you have a sliding scale of skin colour, where if you have some level of melanin where you suddenly become allowed to say a word. I also remember that time a black rapper got a white girl up on stage to sing along to one of his songs, and then it got all awkward when she got to a lyric with the 'n' word and said it along with him, but the crowd reacted negatively, and the rapper backtracked etc. I realise it's difficult because there is no 'council of black people' making decisions, but imo someone needs to make a decision and stick to it!

I have been having big discussions as of late about everything and I think this has been the time where I have actually realised just how much I've faced and put to the back of my mind and it's taken me by surprise. I'm speaking solely on my experiences when I say this but as far as I am aware, I have been given a fair shout at most things such as jobs and schools and colleges. For me, it's been more personal experiences than anything and I've found that my tolerance over the years have changed because of them. For example, on a personal level, I dislike it when anybody uses the word "nigger" and I hate it when white people use it and then use the argument that black people use it too so it's okay. It's not too bad in a joke that isn't derogatory but even then, I sort of cringe a little inside. I don't necessarily say "HOW DOUBLE-DARE YOU!" but at the same time, I think they kind of realise I feel a little uneasy about it. I've had a couple of black people even approach me about the subject on how I feel and when I say I don't like it, I got the "Oh, you're that type of guy", which kind of bugs me and makes me feel a little odd- kind of like I should be okay with another black person saying it. Personally, I just think that it should be something that should never be said by anybody. The word and its meaning is derogatory and I don't really like it. The whole "We're taking the word back" is something that annoys me too. Again, I don't judge anybody using the word in a non-derogatory way (I know it sounds like I do but truly, I don't) but I can't deny my feelings behind it. Another thing I've kind of faced over the past few weeks is the whole "us vs. them" attitude, which I believe is something that was touched on earlier. I've had to explain it to people that it's not directly aimed at them whatsoever but I even had a friend be truly mis-informed and say that black people want it so they overrule everybody. I just said "All it is is nothing more than to be treated equally. I don't get what's so bad about that". My worst experience was in one of my work places where I worked for over a year and a bit and I was hearing some disgusting comments but I was too afraid to say anything and believe me when I say this, it's one of the biggest regrets of my life. I mean, some of the things they came out with were absolutely foul to the point it made me an angry person and I almost came to blows with one of the head staff in the shop. I remember the last occasion where the manager brought me and two other supervisors into the CCTV room to find a Black man robbing make-up, which is very obviously wrong and I was about to call security so they could find whether he was a police alert and the manager shouted "GOT YOU, YOU BLACK BASTARD!" and then looked straight at me and said "No offence". I just replied "I'm not going to lie, that's made me feel awkward" and she just dismissed my comment and carried on. I looked at the other two supervisors and none of them really batted an eyelid so I just clearly said "I can see this place clearly now" and I left. For me, I just think that people are not going to change their minds so easily. Don't get me wrong, it's great to see people be against anti-racism but it is getting to the point for me where I'm hoping it will stay that way but I'm not holding my breath. It's weird you say this because a lot of my experiences has been from non-white people because I'm mixed race. With white people, it's the usual derogatory racial slurs but with non-whites, I'm not black enough/an abomination/race traitor/watered-down black man/fake black/etc. I also get it a lot from Indians who think I speak their language and then, when it turns out I don't understand it, they look at me in disgust and carry on talking in their own language. Depending on how I have my hair or my facial hair, I apparently look Indian or Turkish when in actual fact, I'm white and black Caribbean. I think if I'm truly being honest here, apart from the obvious shit that I've had over the years, the thing that truly bothers me is the "Equal Opportunities" forms. I understand them but it's quite rare to actually find a box for "Mixed (Please specify). I ticked "White" and "Black Caribbean" for my job at the shoe shop and she asked "You've ticked both?" and I said "Yeah. Nothing against you but I'm tired of not being able to choose "Mixed" because it's not in there. I'm a mixed race man. I'm not just White and I'm not just Black Caribbean either" and she actually smiled, laughed and said "Ha! 'Equal Opportunities' my arse" and years later, I'm still there and the new forms have been updated to include Mixed people. I doubt it had anything to do with me but it's just nice to see it finally being recognised.

Hey, what got announced here? Anything remotely inter... Mobile game? OK, cool. I'm outie 5000.

Looks fantastic. Feel like the combat shows much better in these videos than in the dedicated State of Play. Cannot wait!

Pokémon Presents 24.06.2020 Roundup Here's the N-Europe Roundup of Pokémon Presents 24.06.2020 Pokémon Unite. Full press release and video embed in the article.

*sigh* I had zero expectations for this and somehow I'm still disappointed. Oh well, it exists, it's not for me, it's good for those who are interested in it and we still have New Pokémon Snap to look forward to.

Tomorrow’s stream 5pm BST

Yeah, Samus Returns is legit. It's easily the best thing that Mercurysteam has ever worked on and quite frankly, I'm still shocked that they pulled it off! It absolutely blows away everything else they've made and makes their other games look like amateur hour stuff! My only real major complaint about Samus Returns is that it isn't very respectful of the source material in the final stages of the game. What's there is actually pretty great in its own right, but it does betray a lot of the original intention of the original GB game. That, and I feel that the game is overly reliant on the parry mechanic; a mechanic that does end up outstaying its welcome well before the end of the game's running time (which itself is arguably too long for a 2D Metroid; it's, by far, the longest 2D game in the series). While it's far from my favourite Metroid game, it's really really solid and absolutely lives up to the rest of the series.

Fascinating to me that there can be so much discussion about a game, and so little of it about the actual game. Story this, story that. Fuck the story. Buy a book, I'll recommend you a reading list.

I take that as a...yes? For you: Anyways...we, over here in central Europe, will be able to play the game tonight at 4 am...Yeah...no.

Kingsman: The King's Man got a new trailer: Really well put together. The movie looks awesome. I only recently saw the first one but haven't seen the second, however, I enjoyed it rather much.

So it has occurred to me I haven't posted in here since last month... My gaming has relaxed somewhat this month. Partly as a return to some form of normality but also because I've been spending a lot more time on Magic Arena trying to finish some of my decks. There's a new set coming out on Thursday after all. Aside from Magic Arena I decided I would dust off my Youtube channel again and as such here's a Channel Update: I'm subsequently working on the Bonus Video for Metroid Prime 2 Echoes but that's a slow going process as my capture software has developed a habit of breaking up footage after a few moments of recording which is going to make for an interesting video. Thankfully this video is one that naturally has a lot of jump cuts so it isn't too badly affected. I also started the Pokemon Sword and Shield DLC. I have to say, this explorable area is a lot better than the areas you could explore in the main game which is kind of embarassing for the main game. Hopefully this kind of world design can be used going forward... also I'm massively overlevelled for this and thinking about drafting in the "Children" of my Sun and Moon team to battle alongside Kubfu while training it up. I also have intentions to start the Future Connected campaign for Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition but haven't got around to that yet.

Yeah I agree with all of this. I stopped playing about a week ago and feel all the better for it. I'd played every day up to that point. I got to the stage where I was logging on and hitting rocks, checking the two shops and having a quick scout for fossils, even though I have them all now. And visiting the Nook terminal. I was really just wasting half an hour each day doing some stuff which to be honest, wasn't really even enjoyable anymore and was just going through the motions. Redd is really the only worthwhile thing left to me and he comes just too infrequently. That, and the new bugs and fish that come each month. I agree that this game needed more content like furniture sets, and I'd also say it needed new shops (e.g. 24 hour ones) and the like. The content drops have all been very poor so far in my opinion. The absolute worst was the pointless stamp collecting mission in the museum, which bizarrely you could complete each day. Weirder is the fact you can do Reese and Cyrus's wedding photos every single day for a month - while it's not a terrible idea it gets tarnished through repetition, needed to get all the unique items. And bunny day, that was truly hot garbage. An event that actually got in the way of playing the game. Sorry if it sounds like I'm being negative but after the dust has settled, I've got to say that New Leaf was a much more enjoyable experience for me. This time around the biggest new feature - landscaping - just didn't appeal to me at all.

Finally found that bloody weed!:

I have spent about 8 hours on this and I do enjoy it. I don't think it's up there with Pirate's Curse but this is still a solid entry in the Shantae-series and a welcome one at that after the low point that was Half-Genie Hero. I think they did a good job on the transformations and dances this time around, with transformations being allocated to specific buttons instead of dances and dances being more overall changes to the world. This makes the game more fluid, though I don't really like the first dance - at least give us an indication that it can be used. The world is big but not too big and the warp rooms are placed adequately. I just wish I could mark rooms of interest for later. All in all, enjoying the game very much.

Excellent, excellent! I think excercise like this are genuinely a useful thing for moving forwards. I often don't manage to form too much judgement of 'white' people but I do ofc very much just as you do often still try and 'judge' people and those of ethnic origins as to what they might be. Why do we do it? I am british born(saaaf eest landan). My accent came to me more from the streets; and maybe having to fit in in the SE of england where UKIP BNP NF etcetc along with all the old paramilitaries that would have existed all the way up to essex and whatnot in the 90s. Luckily I was just about young enough to miss major violences but obvs had my own share and plenty or racisms. Rummy isn't actually a given name per se - again it was given to me by the streets places and people I used to hang with - at 15 I smashed some bacardi steeet drinking and a 15 year old on hard spirits without a tolerance built very quickly led to a hospital visit My actual name is an exceptionally Christian one but not many people know of it nor use it(called by Rummy or Singh). The surname Singh! Now this is a once. Aye often used by Sikh men(middle name technically) - but apparently a number of Sikhs used it for surname when emigrated or the old systems got fed up with so many Singhs they just started to allow then all or something lol(dunno if too many foreign surnames to process too). My heritage tho? My parents are both Indian Guyanese(of british guyana, tip of south america and considered by of West Indies/Carribean by some British measures). I don't have a lot of family history to hand my the British stole my people and relocated them to labour in their colony of British Guyana and here I am. I most likely have some black in me somewhere apparently a bit of chinese and pretty sure buck runs in my dad's side family too - so I am for myself a curious entity. Mostly tho everything DOES look indian - and my surname does not help. Which brings me back to what I was gonna raise with @Jonnas earlier. What for this I guess is 'non-white' racism which often confuses me - racism or discrimination within groups of people of colour or ethnicity who then as still despite oft no doubt suffering discrimination themselves - discriminated against others. A classic example for me is when I get chatting to people actually from India ans Asia by more recent roots - theres often amongst some a bit of a dropped 'Oh.' tone when I tell them I am guyanese. Many indians I have met love to know where other indian seeming folks are from - but some have often seemed almost hugely disappointed that I'm not as close to the mainland and convo fizzles. It doesn't bother me tons too much but I have found it curious enough to note amongst some of the more Indian folks.

My reasoning wasn't wrong! That's what makes this so frustrating, I suppose. But Min-Min's pretty cool. On the other hand, Rayman is back in the race!

After 28 hours my journey is over (at least the story is done; there's still one character related side quest I will do). Such a wonderful game Great story, wonderful world building, well written characters and humorous writing coupled with a cool battle system make this one a joy to play. There are, however, two negatives that take away one point from the final score: clunky overworld navigation - platforming, pushing (or rather smashing) blocks to the right place in a limited amount of time and other things can be frustratingly annoying; I've turned the game off occasionally because of that... I don't think the game is balanced well you're obviously weak in the beginning but for a rather long time you have very limited options to improve stat changes from level ups are quite unnecessary...you pretty much only need to raise your Medal Points Medals are what makes you stronger, but the majority of good (and necessary) ones you get very late in the game Hard Mode is what the devs actually intended to be the normal difficulty but I think it turns the game into a slog; normal monsters (no matter how strong you are) can take away lots of your HP and require you to spend lots of TP to win; the extra EXP isn't worth the effort My tip for Hard Mode: Turn it off for normal battles and only activate the medal when it's clear that a chapter boss is coming up. That made for a nice challenge. Overall, though: 9/10. Hope there will be a sequel.

Rumours flying around now that this is actually a Tencent-made MMO for mobile phones...

I think I found the source of the pain in my achilles sene - it came from riding my cargo bike too hard as I was always sore in my ankle after riding my son to daycare / picking him up again. So I put more electricity in it and have avoided exercise that hit the ankles too much and that helps a lot. However, my left foot is killing me so I my need to go to someone that can help me here. I have some callus beneath my big toe (yikes, is it truly called that in English as well??) that really hurts - and it forms due to a relatively high arch (it's rather supinated). Don't know if I can fix that.