RedShell

Ugh. Tempted to never update the game again after that.

The best thing about this has to be seeing multiple players cark it to the very first Goomba on 1-1, at the start of pretty much every single game! We’ve all been there. Anyway, it’s fun. Perhaps not quite Tetris 99 fun, but still very good. It’s really great in the later stages of a match when you start to get overwhelmed by the amount of enemies, or when specific enemy types are appearing in unexpected and awkward spots. The stat tracking system is very cool too, even got graphs in there. Hope Nintendo reconsider the limited availability for this.

This is definitely still headed to PC as well, right? Looks very much like my cup of tea (what a surprise ) but I have no desire or intention to get a PS5.

Majima might be a bit too crazy for Smash would indeed be awesome though. I already added him, Kiryu and Akiyama to the game as Mii fighters, along with my custom Yakuza stage: Looks like we aren’t the only ones wanting Yakuza representation in Smash: Seriously though, I’m going to be so utterly disappointed if it doesn’t happen, I mean the Yakuza series is just beyond perfect for Smash Bros. The moves, the heat system, the style, the humour, the music... all of it an absolutely perfect fit!! No Yakuza character in Ultimate would be such a missed opportunity.

Come on Kiryu! I need a reason to buy the 2nd fighters pass... and some points in the newcomer prediction thing.

That’s cool. 25 is currently my highest level though, so no free Xbox for me. I’m noticing a bit of a concerning trend with Game Pass between console and PC...

Hehehe. I’d like to say that I did, but no. Turns out it wasn’t a requirement to unlock that weapon, when I checked the armoury after our online session, the maxed out Silverwind Star was suddenly on the list! So it must have been the quest you guys helped me with. If you ever want some assistance just let me know. Likewise @S.C.G, I seem to recall you were still needing to collect some items too, I’d be happy to help out.

Ah, I see. That makes more sense then. Hopefully it won’t take too long to sort out anyway.

The acorns and pine cones are such a chore to collect... They really should’ve considered lowering the rate at which tree branches fall during the autumn to make it less of a faff.

Thanks again for the help @Glen-i and @S.C.G. I was able to get that Prowler weapon forged as a result: 90% Affinity! That obviously looks insane (and it is ) but it’s only like that on the melee side of things and with a very specific setup, the boomerang affinity is unfortunately a bit lower. Still pretty much guarantees multiple critical hits with every attack though.

Kind of annoying how Doom Eternal is set to arrive on Game Pass for console October 1st, but not on PC until later in the year. I understand the discrepancy between the console and PC versions of Game Pass for titles that might not actually be available for a certain platform, but quite why Doom Eternal can’t also be added to PC at the same time is a bit of a mystery in this case. Also, anyone know what happened to Katana Zero? It was featured in that video I posted a couple of weeks back as “available now” but as far as I can tell it was never available and it still isn’t.

Ok, I created a hub.

Cool. Shall we say 8pm then?

It is indeed. Is Dino Chav available today or tomorrow?

Seeing MH Rise got me in the mood for playing this again, so I’ve been doing some Special Permit quests recently. Working on Silverwind Nargacuga at the moment, as I always wanted to unlock its final weapon for prowler. Just a few more quests to go! I might need some help with the last one though.

I really love it when @Sprout joins. The match where he was Pikachu on the 75m stage was just incredible, such mastery of the game on display there while still being comedic. Makes spectating almost as much fun as playing.

Yeah, sometimes even with the perfect character/kart combo it’s not easy to get all the stars on certain tracks. There is a huge element of luck in this version of MK due to the frenzy system, more so than any other game in the series. But I don’t play this to complete everything or try to get all the unlocks though (which is obviously impossible without spending money) for me it’s just an extra bit of MK on my phone every so often, and the sights and sounds alone are enough for me to enjoy it really. Give it another try! Especially if your only experience of it is pre-horizontal mode, as that has made a big difference to how the game looks and plays.

Be easier than trying to remove it, that’s for sure! Not sure what it was like on MGS 1 and 2, but on MGSV Kojima’s name appeared literally every few seconds.

A new tour arrived today along with this awesomeness: Words cannot describe just how much I’m loving that. Disgustingly groovy!! It almost sounds like something Soyo Oka would’ve come up with. I know everyone likes to poo-poo Mario Kart Tour for various reasons, but since the horizontal mode update it’s actually become pretty great. Not only does it play sooooo much better now, the battery consumption has improved, online multiplayer is solid and they keep adding to it all the time. Seriously, the amount of characters and karts available now is insane and there are also updated retro tracks from previous MK games which haven’t yet appeared in any of the mainline console versions. The tour which just ended was based on Super Mario Kart and added playable Mario and DK Jr. in their original 16-bit sprite style! It looks absolutely hilarious. You also get to hear the SMK jingles at the start and end of each race. The only downside to MK Tour continues to be its gacha mechanic for obtaining drivers and parts. I was lucky enough to get SMK Mario without buying any rubies, but not DK Jr. And now the opportunity to even obtain those characters has gone. But yeah, that stuff aside, MK Tour is actually a really fun game. If they removed/reworked the gacha system and brought it to Switch as MK 9 I think it’d do really well. At the very least I hope Nintendo has plans to utilise a lot of the content from Tour in the next console MK, as there’s some truly fantastic stuff in there.

I get how this is a thing and probably quite common too, but to be honest it’s never happened to me. There have undoubtedly been a few super bargains over the years that I haven’t played very much or completed for sure, but I’ve definitely played every single game that I’ve ever purchased, regardless of the price. What if Microsoft were to buy Nintendo? Yep. Despite not particularly liking the direction either, I accepted this inevitable reality a while back already. The amount of physical games I purchase these days is lower than ever, but at the same time I’ve come to realise that I just don’t replay games anymore. In that sense the digital subscription model is perfect for me, while admittedly I find the amount of choice overwhelming at times I don’t really have trouble focusing on one or two games at a time before moving on to something else, and even though I’ve only been subscribed to Game Pass for a couple of months I’ve already played several games through to completion, and that’s alongside regular sessions on Sea of Thieves!

I am super hyped for it. And yeah, it’s pretty likely that I’ll even be postponing Yakuza 7 now in order to completely focus on this at launch!

Man, at this rate Game Pass is actually going to get too good! I’ve been seriously overindulging on it ever since I subscribed, and they just keep on making it bigger and better. It’s already bloody difficult to decide what to play as it is! With that said, bring on the Bethesda goodness.

This game...

Looks great. But it also looks like my weapon of choice has been relegated to CPU sidekick again, which would be super disappointing.