RedShell

I’ll help out. Just make sure you set up the lobby without a password though (or use the N-E default of 4444 ) as I’ve tried joining you before but couldn’t get in. I need you to send me your Guild card again too as I didn’t actually get it last time we played. Didn’t realise they had to be manually accepted, thought it would be automatic like it was in MH World.

Nope. You’ll only need to do village quests for that.

I’m only 2 away from having done all of the village ones myself! Still got lots of hub quests left though. Will be interesting to see just how much content is added in the future.

A Palico would never do anything stupid like that. Check out the way my hunter is shifted from side to side on that thing, absolutely hilarious. And yes, that "double KO"/Wyvern ride switch was a total fluke.

So guess what happened on literally the first quest I did after making that post. Rathalos got the honours. Although he needed to simultaneously set me on fire, poison, stun and trap me in a corner in order to do it. Ah yeah, I’d forgotten about gunners having decent armour now, which combined with naturally being further away from the monsters makes a huge difference.

The credits have rolled for me as well. This is definitely the quickest I’ve ever “completed” a Monster Hunter game, but it’s also the very first time I’ve done so without carting even once!! Speaks volumes for how low the difficulty level is in this version (well, on the village quests at least) and also how OP Wirebug moves are. I’m sure that’ll change once I get into the high rank/online side of things, but even so it’s still pretty crazy.

Item Box > Manage Equipment > Equipment Display (for hunter) Buddy Board > Manage Equipment > Equipment Display (for buddies)

Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all! However, I have my full hunting gear on in the above pic. Yeah, turns out there's an option to hide individual parts/all of your armour in this version of MH, or maybe that was also possible in previous games too and I just don't remember it. You can do exactly the same for your buddies as well, so I've used it to hide their weapons and make them look even cuter. Anyway... I should probably get back to, you know... actually hunting monsters.

So I just did my first double monster arena quest in Rise. Used the fence at one point so that I could carve the first monster in peace, and then came a Yakuza style revelation! No... surely you can’t do that with the Wirebug too... can you? Yes. Yes you can! Although this also means the end of comically getting trapped on the wrong side of the fence.

I spent way too much time on character/buddy creation yesterday but making some good progress on the village quests now. Just did my first rampage. Not sure what to make of those yet. I mean it’s pretty cool but also a bit slow and not really as exciting as regular hunts. The first one is blatantly just a tutorial though, so I shall reserve final judgment until taking on some more challenging rampages. One thing I’m definitely not keen on though is how the monsters can just fade out of existence. A couple of times during that rampage I was shooting at a monster only for it to suddenly vanish, which is not only disappointing from a gameplay perspective, but it also looks ridiculous. Pretty sure it’s a performance saving measure rather than an artistic choice, but I guess we’ll have to wait for the arrival of the PC version to know for sure. Either way it’s unfortunate and incredibly jarring. Other than that though (and a few other visual cutbacks, like reduced animation frames at a distance) the game looks amazing. It really is impressive that they got it to this level at all on the Switch! Excellent work by Capcom. I absolutely love the monster intros in this version as well. They’ve clearly gone all out (and then some ) with the Japanese influence this time, but it really works and I reckon it fits Monster Hunter like a glove. So yeah, overall I’m very much enjoying Rise. I do get the feeling this could be the easiest game in the series though, mainly because the wirebug is just such an overpowering tool! It’s crazy effective defensively and offensively! Not fought Magnamalo yet though, so I should probably wait and see how that goes before commenting on difficulty.

This was in MH World too. But yeah, very handy. Glad to hear it's also in Rise.

Yakuza 6 has arrived! Played through the first chapter and man does this game look and run amazing on PC! Definitely going to be replaying the entire game at some point.

Palicoes are better than Palamutes confirmed! Seriously though, I'm glad I checked that vid out. Was nice to get a refresher on familiar mechanics from previous games, as well as some useful info on the stuff that's new in Rise.

Oh wow, so the broken Joy-Con rail buttons thing is also a common issue then? If there are several of us here at N-E affected by it, then it’s likely to be a pretty widespread problem in general. I guess you just don’t hear about it as much as Joy-Con drift due to it being a less noticeable defect. Well, it’s obviously going to be very noticeable if you want to use the Joy-Con as individual controllers but I assume there are many people that never do that, whereas everyone and their dog will notice Joy-Con drift should that problem occur.

Same here, on my Right Joy-Con. The SR & SL buttons, plus the SYNC button and the LED lights are all dead on it. I opened it up once and discovered that the ribbon cable responsible for all of those things was insanely creased! Moving it around slightly I was able to get everything working again, but just couldn't get it to stay functional when closing up the Joy-Con, and in the end gave up trying to fix it. I never use the Joy-Cons as separate controllers anyway so it's no big deal for me, but along with the drifting issue it's yet another blemish on Nintendo's otherwise fantastic history of robust hardware design. They really messed up with the Switch Joy-Cons.

From what I understand the game is massively different and improved compared to how it was at launch, and they keep on adding to it all the time. I only started playing it last year in August, and even in that time have seen loads of improvements and new content arrive. Definitely give it another go if you only ever played it at launch.

Time to update my list. Also going to add stuff that I've played for a short amount of time (or in some cases quite a lot) but didn't complete, plus previously completed games that are still getting played. Levelhead: I initially dismissed this as a Super Mario Maker knock-off, but it's actually amazing and in some ways superior! While I've not spent much time with the editor, even after a quick look it's clear just how much more flexible and powerful it is compared to Mario Maker. There are options for creating all sorts of complex events, camera controls, even true secret areas (something I would've loved in SMM for hiding Baby Face ) and items which reveal themselves based on player proximity or other customisable actions. The included tutorial/story levels are also a blast to play and feature a huge variety of game mechanics, pretty much every level introduces a new concept or power-up, or even just creative and super challenging ways to use existing ones. The gameplay is incredibly fine-tuned too, it plays really, really well. I had loads of fun going through all of the included levels anyway and would definitely recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest in the 2D platform genre. Superhot: Mind Control Delete: Not much to say about this one really, went into it completely blind (and never played the first game either) so wasn't aware of its unique movement system/gameplay, thought my controller wasn't working properly at first! But yeah, very cool mechanics in this game with time only flowing while you move around yourself. Sea of Thieves: While this game doesn't really have an end on the PvP side of things, I finally reached the conclusion of the main PvE content in the form of the Tall Tales! Man, I just love Sea of Thieves! And even though it's clearly designed around multiplayer I actually found it to be a fantastic single player experience. In a way it felt kind of similar to BotW whereby you're thrown into a giant adventure with little to no instruction whatsoever and free to explore the world however you like. Don't think I've ever played a game that could be so relaxing (almost meditative) yet also so unbelievably stressful, but this is exactly what you get (and especially as a solo player) in SoT. One moment you're sailing the seas enjoying the beautiful scenery and sounds, the next you're under attack by a giant shark, or ghost ship, or worst of all a group of player controlled pirates! Yeah, this is probably the biggest complaint the game receives from most people that choose to play it solo, the fact that at any time you could potentially be attacked by other players. While there's no doubt it's a frustrating aspect, it's also one that I actually grew to enjoy. The penalty for losing an encounter can be severe, with large amounts of treasure or progress in a Tall Tale being lost, but this also teaches you to play the game smarter and become a better pirate! Definitely have to mention the presentation of the game, it's an absolute stunner! It merges a cartoony look with super realistic materials and lighting effects and the results are fantastic. The star of the show is definitely the water, which looks so good and moves so convincingly you'd swear it was real! Not only that, but the wave simulation of this gigantic sea is perfectly synchronised online for all players, making it a phenomenal technical achievement too. Sound effects and music are spot-on as well, the music in particular (while kind of sparse) really has that Rare signature style to it, and it made the game feel very much like a Nintendo era Rare title to me, which is something I wasn't expecting but obviously really enjoyed. Have since learnt that Robin Beanland was composer on the project though, so that explains that one. And Gregg Mayles (who's been at Rare since forever) was director, so yeah, although Rare may have lost some key staff during the transition to Microsoft, several veterans remain and the teams are undoubtedly still able to produce games with that unique Rare vibe. Ok, I'll stop saying Rare now. Anyway, superb game. And definitely one that I'll return to occasionally, as it just keeps on evolving. Doom: I've played the first level of this game so many times over the years, but somehow never much more than that. With the majority of the Doom franchise suddenly available on Game Pass I decided to finally play through all of the this classic game. I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot more than Doom Eternal! Probably because I could actually keep up with what was going on in this. Imagine it was seen as crazy fast when played back in 1993 (like Eternal is now) but it's got just the right level of speed/action for me and my ageing reflexes today. Quick mention on Wreckfest, which I spent a substantial amount of time playing but didn't finish. Was a lot of fun initially, in fact I couldn't stop laughing when I first started it. The game rewards driving like a total idiot and causing as much chaos and destruction as possible, and the way the cars spectacularly crash and fall to bits over the course of a race is really impressive! The problem was that it suffers from what I like to call, Project X Zone-itis i.e. it's simply waaaaaaay too long for the amount of content included. So yeah, the career mode eventually became unbearably repetitive. Cool game though. Completed: Tetris Effect: Connected (PC) Doom Eternal (PC) Dragon Quest XI (PC) The Medium (PC) Yakuza 3 Remastered (PC) UnderMine (PC) Ring Fit Adventure (Switch) Levelhead (PC) Superhot: Mind Control Delete (PC) Sea of Thieves (PC) Doom (PC) Played for a while: Cyber Shadow (PC) Control (PC) Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (PC) Yakuza 4 Remastered (PC) Wreckfest (PC) Older games that I'm still playing regularly: Mario Kart Tour (Mobile) Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) Rocket League (Switch/PC) Super Mario Maker 2 (Switch) Tetris 99 (Switch)

Definitely looking forward to checking out Yakuza 6 on PC, performance on the standard PS4 (where I played it) was pretty nasty. Man, Game Pass continues to be awesome. My current sub is over at the end of the month (when I'll be turning my attention to MH Rise ) but needless to say... I'll be back!

You can't, as I paid absolutely no attention to any of that stuff. Anyway, glad you got to try the demo.

I do indeed realise that. But for now I'm just happy to finally have one of them!

Yay! I can stop playing now. Yeah right.

Yeah, you really need a full team for that monster in the demo, 15 mins is a super tight time limit! We were doing pretty great on that last one though, can’t have been too far off killing it. Looking forward to properly destroying Magnamalo in the full game! Anyway, cheers for the hunts.