RedShell

I almost went crazy looking for that on my first playthrough, it's so stupidly placed. But yeah, great to hear you enjoyed the game, Jonnas. Fantastic write-up too. 👍 I don't see myself getting around to doing a comprehensive post before the end of the month so will simply update my list once again: JellyCar Worlds (originally played on Apple Arcade, but picked up my own copy for PC) Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Withering Rooms Vampire Survivors (Ode to Castlevania DLC) (still have a bit to do on this though, it's massive!) Sea of Thieves (Season 14) Little Kitty, Big City Have to give a small shout-out to Withering Rooms actually. This ended up being my Halloween game this year and was a very pleasant surprise indeed! Anyone who's interested in the horror genre (especially the classics) absolutely needs to be trying this game, you're guaranteed to enjoy something about it. Withering Rooms is packed full of content that covers so many different categories of horror, the variety on offer here is really quite impressive. The fact that it was all created by a solo dev is frankly impossible for me to get my head around! Obviously certain aspects of the production are somewhat indicative of that, but for me, the jankieness of those things complement the style of the game and simultaneously enhance its already creepy vibe. I also thought the story was great, it's based around a really simple idea (which I won't spoil ) but one that works wonderfully for a video game of this type and can be fleshed out as much as the player desires by collecting various fragments as you progress. Gameplay is also very good (albeit on the more challenging side ) the combat is fun and can be quite varied, thanks to a large amount of customisation options made possible via gear, weapon selection and player levelling choices. There are plenty of other interesting gameplay mechanics thrown in for good measure too, you even get Eternal Darkness-esque sanity effects to enjoy! The presentation is... kind of interesting. A jarring combination of often rudimentary character modelling/animation but generally excellent environments textures and lighting effects. Again, I personally love the look of the game, but it might not be to everyone's taste. The soundtrack is sublime though. While mostly appropriate for the setting (Victorian era classical) it gets layered with electronic music at times, there are also unusual variations that get super unhinged depending on the player character's current sanity. It's mixed in a masterful way though, great stuff. One pretty minor thing about the presentation that I'll also mention, as it's something that I really appreciated, is how every NPC in the game has a completely distinct font for their dialogue text, and yet all of them suit the theme of the game perfectly (take note Bloodstained devs! ). It's a small attention to detail, but one that also helps to further portray each individuals character and, well, just looks cool. I could go on and on about this one I reckon... if I wasn't lazy, and if it hadn't been a few weeks since I'd completed it... but yeah, I very much enjoyed the game (might even be my GotY for 2024, plus one of my all-time favourites of the genre). Highly recommended for horror fans. And with that, here's what's likely to be my finalised gaming diary for this year: If anything else gets added between now and the end of the year it'll be Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and possibly Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess which I've also been playing recently and am about halfway through- oh, and Teardown, almost forgot about that one. Otherwise that's going to do it for 2024.

Yeah, quite the surprise indeed! Looks very cool. Pretty crazy how much RGG Studio seem to have on their plate at the moment though.

Whaaaat?! A new Okami is cool and everything, but what immediately jumps into my head at the news that Clover is essentially back from the dead is GOD HAND! Oh man, a new God Hand (or even a remaster of the original) would be something else. Only if it were made with complete disregard for current social trends though, of course. No bloody point otherwise. Yeah, I know, it's not going to happen (and certainly not in the way I'd like if it did happen) but a man can dream.

Hmm... This design is popping up in a lot of places I see. Can't say I'm happy about the possibility of Switch 2 being larger than the current Switch (which is already way too big to be considered a portable IMO) but I guess it was inevitable. Just like how the majority of people seem to want absolutely enormous mobile phones that can barely fit inside pockets for some reason.

Well, I rolled back my save file, unfortunately it didn't solve the problem. However, I did figure out that you can force Indy to equip the camera (despite the glitch) by picking up another item (a weapon or a torch etc.) and then using the d-pad shortcut. So yeah, I was able to progress a bit more on my original save, but not for long. Eventually I encountered a dead end where you had to use the whip to escape, and seeing as there's no shortcut for that particular item I was screwed again. In the end I decided to restart the game on a new save, lowered the difficulty to easy and just blasted through the opening section. Managed to get back to the point where I was trapped (originally around 3 hours of gameplay) in like 30 minutes though, so not too bad. And with the whip at my disposal once more, the adventure could continue! I'd like to say that I haven't encountered any more bugs since, but I'm afraid that's simply not the case. Although nothing else game breaking (like the item glitch) one of the issues I've had to deal with was so bloody stupid it actually gave me a good laugh... It is a huge shame about all of these issues with the game, as it's otherwise been great. The exploration gameplay is really good, the presentation is nuts, both in terms of visuals and audio (the voice actor does a seriously amazing job of mimicking Harrison Ford ) and the cutscenes have been super entertaining so far. I wasn't exactly thrilled when it was revealed there would be over 4 hours of cutscenes in the game, but now I'm kind of disappointed that it's only 4. Also, I can't stop whistling the theme tune at the moment.

Ah. Well, at least the game will probably be rid of the major glitches by then. Yup. Should've expected it really. Was reading online that some people have managed to solve this issue by rolling back their save data, so I might give that a try later on. It will mean I lose around 40 mins of progress, but I really do want to get exploring again as it was just starting to get really good.

Interesting. I always thought that version was just added rumble pak support. Anyway, haven't upgraded my phone so still not even tried this app. On the plus side, by the time I finally get around to upgrading there should be a decent collection of music for me to check out on it.

I wouldn't mind replaying DK64 actually. Have very fond memories of playing it (well, attempting to play it ) on January 1st 2000 whilst suffering with the worst hangover that I've ever experienced.

Got the 40th anniversary theme unlocked the other day. I'd not played this in quite a while so there's a large gap in my theme collection. Have a lot of tickets saved up though, but apparently nothing to use them on. I thought that past event themes were purchasable with tickets, or did I just imagine that?

Anyone else playing this? I'm a couple of hours in and had been really enjoying it. Unfortunately though, it appears that I'm now unable to progress any further due to a bug with the game's controls. No longer able to use the whip or the camera so I'm completely stuck. Seems to be an issue for quite a lot of people so hopefully a fix is on the way soon.

What in the actual hell? I won a game as Snake and as Rosalina!? Ladies and Gentlemen, Smash Bros. has entered... The Twilight Zone. Cheers for the games everyone, see ya next week!

And the award for most whiffed Final Smashes with R.O.B. (again) goes to... That aside, it does feel like I still got it with that character, kind of. It was nice to get some consecutive games played as him anyway, get rid of the rust a bit.

Yeah, was good fun. It's always nice to play some 1v1 battles now and then, as it means I actually get to see what the hell is going on for a change. That was indeed hilarious. Especially when I inadvertently made Kirby huge with a lightning bolt just as Yoshi was getting inhaled. It was all downhill for me from that point on as I couldn't stop laughing.

I do indeed. Actually, it's more like 1½. But yeah... be sure to "keep your 👁️eyes👁️ open" for 'em.

Here's SOGM for comparison: It's closer than I was expecting. They'd have a good fight.

I decided not to rejoin after the 2nd D/C, just in case the problem was on my end (apparently not) but it was almost time for me to stop playing as well. Anyway, cheers for the games everyone, as always. Hopefully things go smoother next time.

What the hell?! No limit? OK, so this Malevolent Nuke Tree of yours... how many eggs we talking about here?

Please, you have no idea of the power that Stinky Old Garlic Man possesses. He's unstoppable. Reckon he has room for even more eggs too. Actually, that's a good point, just how many eggs can a single character have? I've never actually looked into it, SOGM is just super OP because I play as him 99% of the time so he's obviously scoffed the most eggs.

This game hit a new low with the Ode to Castlevania DLC...

I know, I know. But after 25 years of playing Smash Bros. with tap jump, there's just no way I can rewire my brain at this point.

Yay! More tilt moves that I can't do because of tap jump. My first impressions are that he seems pretty sluggish, but has some powerful/annoying moves to compensate for that. It's fun to finally be able to dish out the stupidly long combo for once. Love the range on his Final Smash too, although it's also easy to whiff, as I expertly demonstrated on a few occasions. Anyway, cheers for the games everyone. See you next time!

What!? The custom stage portion of the night is the main event! Well, with a theme like this one it could be, seeing as I've got quite a collection of spooky themed custom stages now.

At least I'm back to my usual setup this week. Wi-Fi + portable mode was a nightmare! Oh, and I actually purchased Kazuya the other day too, so will probably stick mainly to him tonight while I figure out how he plays in Smash.

I'm losing track of names for characters/weapons at this point as there's so many, but one run I did stood out more than others due to how ridiculously OP the character was, so it was probably Hector then. Also, I think it's safe to say they never need to add another whip to Vampire Survivors ever again. During one game I had an inventory full of 'em, then this popped into my head:

Yeah, it seems like only those playing on PS5 Pro or a stupidly high-end PC will be getting a good experience with this game. So in reality, not that many people. There's a lot of talk about RE Engine just not being suitable for open world games, and it looks like the performance of Dragons Dogma II and now MH Wilds confirms that. Such a shame.