Leaderboard

The problem with this is that MS have conditioned their userbase to no longer buy games. Not having their games on GP day 1 will more than likely cause an uproar and possibly push people to cancel subscriptions. Thing is, Phil Spencer has been in charge long enough now to be shouldering the blame for what potentially could be happening here. They made acquisitions left and right but have nothing really to show for it other than a list of studios that they own to plaster on a powerpoint presentation. Gamepass was the big play here and it ultimately didn't move the needle for them, nor did the likes of Halo Infinite and Starfield. For me, Phil Spencer is to blame for a lot of what has gone wrong with the brand over the past several years. MS should have been more hands on with the studios that they own, especially with ones that were in charge of their biggest IPs. For example, 343 showed time and time again that they weren't up to the task of carrying on Bungie's legacy with the Halo series and yet the series just kept getting handed to them. You could also argue that they haven't really pushed their franchises forward or evolved them in the way that they needed to. Look at what Nintendo done with Zelda or Sony with God of War. Old franchises that were given a new lease of life by injecting them with new ideas. Microsoft have still just relied on the usual Forza/Halo/Fable/Gears line up and that wasn't going to cut it anymore for most gamers. The acquisitions they made were no doubt partly driven by how creatively bankrupt Microsoft's own studios had become and it was far easier to just go out and buy someone than to instead sort out the rot and get your teams back on track.

Alternatively, it could.

The Last of Us Part II | 2020 I hadn't returned to The Last of Us Part II since I rolled credits on it back in 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when I sprinted through the game in just a handful of days following its launch (it released on a Friday; it was complete the Monday night). The game, at that time, and at that pace, took a toll on me that I don't think any other story has; it was gruelling, exhausting, and so viscerally cruel. I struggled to sleep when I was playing it, I didn't play any game alone by myself for weeks following it, and when I think back to that time, while so much of the lockdown period was a blur, there is a bottomless pit of nothingness in my mind when it comes to the weeks that followed my time with the game. When the Remastered version of the game was announced towards the end of last year - the need for which I think can still be debated - I found myself in a different place with the series. I had replayed the first game countless times, even on some of the higher difficulties, and my time spent revisiting the game had solidified my thoughts and feelings that it was a masterpiece both as a game and as a story; there just aren't that many holes to poke in The Last of Us, when it comes to its writing, its gameplay, and it is still one of the best-paced stories in gaming over a decade since it first released. I loved the HBO adaptation (for the most part). I became as about intimately familiar with the first game as I feel I reasonably could. All of this meant that one overwhelming truth clarified for me over the last couple of years: for me, Part II never had a hope in hell of living up to its predecessor. No chance. Zero. The cards weren't just stacked against it, the entire casino was against it. And that's before we even begin to consider just how damaging the hack and subsequent leaks leading up to release were. As the release of Remastered approached, and with the game already on my shortlist of games to revisit for the year to revisit, parse through, and clarify my own feelings on the experience, it quickly became apparent that this was the time to do so. But, for the first time when revisiting a story, I knew I had to challenge myself by leaning on the game's structure to pace myself and not get dragged down by it again; thankfully, I can say I'm fine, with credits rolling on the game over half a week ago. Am I still reflecting on it and processing some of those heightened moments of emotion and tension? Sure. Is it still heavy as hell? Absolutely. Have I managed to clarify how I think and feel about it, my main aim going into the game this time around? Yep. I think that it's a masterpiece. Which makes revisiting my 2020 Gaming Diary entry on the game force a chuckle out of me, because my general attitude towards the game and so many of my points of praise remain the same. This game is still exhausting. Unrelenting. Draining. Its performances are second to none, with special mention reserved for Ashley Johnson, Laura Bailey, Shannon Woodward and Ian Alexander; its writing by Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross incredibly ambitious (though perhaps overreaching and a bit on-the-nose and repetitive at times); its score masterfully composed by Santaolalla and Mac Quayle; its animation work, visual design, lighting, sound design, and so many other of its technical facets all still best-in-class (and, I think it's easy to argue, still the best in class, despite being halfway through a new generation of consoles and having seen a spate of wonderful AAA feasts in realistic settings release since); its endless list of accessibility features still undeniably best-in-class; the physics, those ropes; its cutscenes (framing, composition, timing) all spot on, and I have to highlight their utilisation in transitions allowing players to not see a loading screen outside of jumping to a particular point or reloading after a game over state, because it leans on the "crawl/squeeze through this space while we load up the next" only a handful of times in the entire game, despite it plaguing the industry in an overbearingly noticeable way in the vast majority of AAA games released before and since. The story also had much more levity than I remembered, though I can't really blame myself for forgetting that, with how heavy it can get. As much as I enjoyed it before, I have to mention that this time around the gameplay really gripped me - I'm not sure if it's a case of just getting better at games, wanting to test the game's limits, playing the first game on higher difficulties or a combination of all three - and, I've got to say, the moment-to-moment gameplay makes this probably, for me, the best third-person shooter...ever? At least that I've played; some of those combat encounters blow away any encounter in the first game (and still does, given how little they changed in the remake). It's also the best stealth-action game not directed by someone called Hideo Kojima. The funnier thing to me, though, is that all of my criticisms still read as being spot on, too; in fact, revisiting the game this time has me doubling down on pretty much all of them. This game is long, with its pacing is shaky at times, downright screeching to a halt at others, and it's the pacing, for me, which is probably the most noticeable and biggest step down from the first game to the second. Areas are too wide open at almost every point in the game which isn't a setpiece, and in a world as dangerous as the one found in these games, you can spend a whole lot of time - too much time - going from house to house scouring the place for supplies; this extends to and compounded by the crazy number of things to collect in the game. Starting a QTE to move something that's blocking a door or to yank on a chain points out to the player that the area can't be returned to once you go through, and so it takes you out of the game by reminding you that it is one, and I often found myself backing out to look around some more before carrying on. There's an open wide section early on in the game, the inclusion of which I don't mind because it's a great way to break the game's linearity up a bit and allow for some proper exploration, but there are one or two areas you frustratingly can't return to if you miss something while looking around (and the game's auto-save only takes up one slot, which sucks, so if you miss something you're just out of luck), which further compounds being meticuolous and very slowly scouring places for supplies. There are one or two times where I encountered a funny animation glitch, like Ellie just getting caught in a loop of restarting the same animation while climbing over something after clambering out of water, and while this is probably the best example of nitpicking I've got, when you're as ambitious and as realistic-looking as this game is, yes, it does take you out when things go a little bit wrong. I think what changed my experience this time around was the clear intent to lean on what I knew about the game's structure rather than to sprint through, which is arguably the best way to go through the first game, but in Part II it only serves to compound how noticeable some of the pacing issues are. I want to speak to some of the story beats and the pacing a bit more than I've allowed myself to on here before, so I'll do so in the below spoiler tag; obviously, avoid this if you haven't played through the game yourself yet and are planning to, but if you aren't planning to, I think this will probably give a much greater insight to what my biggest issues with the game are. I also want to talk a bit about what I think they could have done differently to address this, and while I could go on endlessly about this, I've tried (that being the key word here) to keep it short, but I want to address the relationship between the duties of a storyteller and the one experiencing the story, too. Also, if I'm going to highlight the game's visuals, I guess I ought to showcase them. In 2013, The Last of Us delivered on its promise to drive narratives in video games forward, with a game which transcended the boundaries between game and film - arguably, some might argue, for the first time in the history of the medium. In 2020, The Last of Us Part II delivered on the promise to drive narratives in video games forward once again, this time in a manner not nearly as universally beloved or as functionally flawless, but purely founded on its ambition. If nothing else, it's hard to not come away from Part II this second time around with a newfound respect for the risks Naughty Dog took with this game, but more than that, despite its flaws, I think Part II deserves the same respect as the first game, be it because of its superb gameplay, its ambitious story, or its timeless - and unfortunately also seemingly always timely - message around the importance of letting go, empathy, and the cyclical nature of violence begetting vengeance, and vengeance begetting further violence. I think Part II is a masterpiece, and I think with this replay, it might have just cemented itself as one of my favourite games and experiences with a story in any medium.

Very true. It's criminal it was cut. It's one of funniest episodes of Z. Although I did find the baseball episode of Super funnier. Amazing.

Microsoft will probably officially announce the next Series X hardware revision (the one with no disc) at the same time.

It's February, and i have already completed my second game of the year! I had to open a window to let out the smoke coming off my PS4 controller. I managed to finish Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception It's a fantastic game, I absolutely loved it. Someone on here (was is Sheikah?) said that the 2nd one is the best, and not to bother with 3 and 4, but i wholeheartedly disagree. 3 is brilliant in every way. Each game gets more and more like being in a blockbuster action film, and I love it. Sure, the plot is a bit crap, but all the best action films have slightly naff plots anyway. The locations the game sets up are just so imaginative - most games of this type will have you having a shootout in an old street. Or a warehouse. Or a slightly different street. (And yes, there are a few warehouses), but the whole section with the cruise ship, the ship breakers yard, the horseback chase etc, make for a much more memorable game. The only slightly dodgy bit for me was the weird bit where you are wandering around the desert dying of thirst for several levels. Not a fan of that. It was interesting that they took this level and made it into a full game though (Journey). Anyway, i'm definitely going to continue on a play 4 at some point, but i may have a break and play something else in between. Games completed by me in 2024: Mass Effect 1 Uncharted 3

When fifty one years old *you* reach, look as good *you* will not, hmm?

Power League 64 JP release: 8th August 1997 NA release: N/A PAL release: N/A Developer: Hudson Publisher: Hudson N64 Magazine Score: 42% I had no idea that the Japanese loved American baseball so much, but this is the third Japan-exclusive game on the N64. This one has a more “realistic” art style, but the lack of faces make the players look absolutely horrific. Control is similar to the previous baseball games, except this time the batter has no aiming reticule, so you have no idea how close you were to hitting. When fielding, you also need to move your players more, although throwing to the bases is a nightmare as it never goes to the person you want it to go to. I did learn something about baseball from this game: seemingly a big part of the game is the pitcher deliberately throwing an “out” ball, as if the batter swings, it doesn’t count as out. The CPU in this game loves doing difficult shots as it knows about the lack of depth perception in a video game, and the minute screen space between in and out. If you do manage to hit the ball, the CPU fielders will catch it most of the time, so it doesn’t really matter much, while the CPU will manage to fill the bases and then get a home run. It’s a miserable experience. There is a mode that I thought could help practicing batting. It’s a home run competition where you try batting 10 times to get as many home runs as possible – except that this is completely unlike batting in the real game as it’s easy to hit the ball and you seem to get a home run every time you hit it. Remake or remaster? It’s a bad sports game, so doesn’t really need anything. Official ways to get the game. There is no official way to get Power League 64

For ummm... Many reasons

This is why Stereoscopic 3D should be the standard. So many games just inherently benefit from the tech in subtle ways that make games just better to play.

I fucked up my Lost Age journey to a degree I didn't think possible. I was waiting to get the Lash Psynergy, but was swearing to myself that it was coming soon... Turns out I missed it completely. I was at Alhafra and had to backtrack all the way back to other continent for the temple there, I've done Airs Rock and everything. I'm fuckin' level 15, I gonna tear these enemies a whole new one.

I'd say just go for whether you want to experience the full thing or save some time. Kai has a better dub if you prefer dub, although I'd recommend watching the sub. Kai cut the driving lesson filler episode which is required viewing so you need to go watch that separate. They did (eventually), I don't think they cut that much, if anything at all, except the Japanese release which had fewer episodes.

Coincidence is cancelled. Feb Directs are unheard of. These rumblings the Switch 2 is built of MS Surface tech about to be confirmed.

I'm not watching the SoP and will probably skip the demo.

Oh shit, it’s real… It’s Dreamcast all over again! Fucking hell, I can’t believe they’re just straight up giving up on consoles so suddenly! I thought this would be a slow transition over the next decade, not literally overnight! We’re about to witness history here.

Crunchyroll finally making Dragon Ball, Z, GT & Kai available to stream in the UK soon. https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/announcements/2024/2/5/crunchyroll-dragon-ball-series-streaming-united-kingdom

They need to get that shit on the Switch Online now. This music still resonates

If this was a remake of Adventure 2 Battle, we'd be talking serious investment!

Yeahhhhh, gonna have to snuff that beacon out. The Mystery Dungeon team have only just released the latest Shiren the Wanderer game in Japan. I'd be surprised if they were working on two titles at the same time.