killthenet

I was sure that Williams had done him when he was 2-0 up in the 6th set but Clemens was phenomenal from then on, hauling himself out of trouble - the fact that Williams only had one dart for the match was a testament to Clemens clutch darts. Didn't expect that to be such a classic, what a great start to the night!

Totally understandable, the guy has been working himself into the ground for ages so he deserves a break. I hope it is only a break though and he does have a couple of games left in him - let someone else take the reigns on Smash but give Sakurai the chance to flex his creative muscles with something brand new

@darksnowman I'm glad she played well, that's the best I've seen her play for a while, it's just gutting that she couldn't hit her doubles when she needed to - she really should have won. Rydz v Rock this afternoon wasn't the barnstormer we hoped it would be, Rydz wasn't really on it at all so Rock didn't have to raise his level much to beat him. I don't think he'll get past Aspinall playing the way he has so far but I'd be surprised if he doesn't add a few points to his average in the next round so that one could be a classic. Clemens was fantastic just now against Willie O'Connor - that 132 was ridiculous.

Didn't get to see Hempel's win but I'm glad you've got more representation in the second round. The quality has definitely picked up over the last few nights, there have been some cracking games and even the ones with lower averages have been thoroughly entertaining contests on the whole. Favourite match so far was probably Williams v Joyce on Sunday night, they were both on top form so you have to feel sorry for Joyce, putting in the highest average of the championships and still not getting through to the next round. Fingers crossed Fallon can put in a good performance tomorrow night, she hasn't been in great form all year but she seems to love the big stage and will have to be on it to get past Ricky Evans - hopefully it's another entertaining match.

Emi Martinez was the difference

Absolutely insane. Mbappe doing everything he can to spoil the Messi party. Messi to win it with a hat trick of his own?

Mbappe hat-trick to win it

Yeah, Wright v Mansell was a bit of a slog - he'll definitely improve in the next round but he wasn't pushed at all last night, didn't even have to get out of first gear. The tournament hasn't really sparked to life yet, besides Keane Barry losing I wouldn't say there have been any real surprises and that second session was full of one sided matches. Hopefully tonight is a bit more exciting!

I started off November by playing one of the years big releases in Bayonetta 3 and, needless to say, I had a great time playing through it. I hadn't seen many of the pre-release trailers so I wasn't aware that the premise was a riff on the multiverse concept that everyone seems to be doing at the moment, finding that out definitely dampened my excitement a bit but thankfully Platinum put their unique spin on things so it all feels like quite a natural next step for the series. I did struggle to reacquaint myself with the controls at first, feeling pretty clumsy in the first chapter or so, but in the early goings my biggest gripe was with the mounted sections and the summons in general - they just felt clunky and slow and on the first mounted section with the spider the game didn't do the best job at explaining the mechanics so I kept falling off, halting my progress in the chapter for longer than I would have liked. Once I was used to the controls and started to put together combos though my progress through the game went pretty smoothly, Platinum's games are generally pretty forgiving with checkpoints and items so besides failing the glorified QTE's at times I didn't really run into any significant challenges until the very end of the game (and even then I was able to beat the final boss with relative comfort). There are certainly issues with performance and presentation, some of the environments can feel a bit lifeless, the textures of low detail and resolution that is especially noticeable in the larger areas, certainly issues that would be ironed out on more modern hardware, but for the most part Bayonetta 3 is an absolute joy to play through so I found it easy to overlook the blemishes. Not sure what the general consensus is but I loved Viola, it was a surprise to me that she was a bonafide playable character and, despite it being difficult for me to pull off witch time with her I loved using her sword - it's kind of reminiscent of the Leviathan Axe in God of War in the way you can throw it at enemies and switch to hand to hand combat - and Cheshire is an absolutely incredible summon, just a great character all round. The story didn't quite hit the heights of the first game, it's more a way to link the increasingly outlandish chapters together than a genuinely engrossing narrative, but its serviceable and leads to some utterly glorious gameplay moments. There is so much variety in the gameplay, the way it can jump from normal combat to something completely off the wall and unexpected is really impressive, it's unashamedly dumb fun at its best - the most videogamey videogame I've ever played and an absolute must-play for any fan of Platinum's previous output. Next up, much slower paced and smaller in scope, I played Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol on the Nintendo DS. It's a game I've been meaning to get around to playing for ages, I remember being intrigued by it during the height of the DS' popularity but for whatever reason I never bought it - I played the GC original a few years ago and was charmed by it so when I repaired my 3DS in October I decided to finally dig into the series handheld entries. In terms of premise its relatively similar to the first game except, instead of cleaning up a house Chibi is tasked with rejuvenating a barren park by planting flowers to attract more visitors. At first Chibi has such a low capacity battery that you can only spend a couple of minutes watering the buds before retreating to the Chibi House to recharge, it means the opening hour or so is frustratingly stop/start and slow, but it's definitely worth persevering. As the game opens up you can acquire larger batteries and more tools, eventually unlocking a variety of vehicles that make it easier to get around the park, making the basic gameplay loop more and more enjoyable as you progress through the game. I was worried that the game would be hampered by the less powerful hardware of the DS but besides being restricted to using the D-pad for movement it actually holds up pretty well compared to the GC original, mechanically its very similar and, although there are definitely some concessions visually (the draw distance is shorter and things can look a bit low res and blocky at times) it manages to retain a lot of the charm. As you expand the park and explore the adjacent high street you discover a number of other toys that have run out of energy and, after recharging them, they show their gratitude by offering to assist you in redeveloping the park, allowing you to undertake more extensive projects to attract more visitors. As the narrative unfolds an antagonist, another toy called Sergeant Smugglor, shows up and releases flower corrupting minions called Smoglings that Chibi needs to chase down and squash to avoid them undoing all of his hard work. The unwelcome visitors help to keep you on your toes, mixing up the gameplay loop and threatening to scupper your plans, so things manage to feel quite fresh all the way through to the end. In the end I think I enjoyed Park Patrol more than the original GC entry, it feels more at home on a handheld, being more conducive to short spurts of gameplay, and the developers seem to have ironed some of the problems that made it’s older console sibling quite frustrating at times. I probably won’t get around to it for a little while but I’m keen to see how they expanded on the concept in the Japan only follow up, and to a lesser extent the 3DS platforming spin off, it’s just a shame that the series seems to be dead in the water - it would be great to see it make a comeback, even if it was just in the form of a remaster. I followed up Chibi Robo with one of the years big hitters, God of War Ragnarok on PS5. Of the few big releases I played in 2018 the reboot of GoW was probably my favourite, it was an interesting change of pace for the series in terms of tone, offering up a decent story, but it was the combat that was the real star - just the act of throwing and recalling the axe was enjoyable by itself - so I was keen to see where the series went next. Unfortunately, my first few hours with Ragnarok were a bit of a slog, coming so soon off the back of Bayonetta, GoW seemed to take itself so seriously that I struggled to connect with it at first - and the constant chatter from the companion characters didn’t help matters much at all. It’s a problem that was highlighted by GMTK but the way the NPC’s don’t give you any time to even assess your surroundings before pointing out how to solve a puzzle is incredibly frustrating, making the game seem every bit as dumb as Bayonetta, just by insulting the players intelligence rather than being completely daft and over the top. Those problems didn’t completely go away as the game wore on, even during the climax Mimir and Atreus were telling Kratos he was on fire, but they definitely became easier to overlook them as areas got less linear and I became more engrossed in the narrative. There is a lot to like about Ragnarok, the combat is engaging and evolves in interesting ways from the 2018 entry, but the impactful character moments aren’t as frequent as I had hoped and the game felt like it outstayed its welcome a little too much (howlongtobeat pegs it at 24 hours for the main story and my play through clocked in at over 35, I did some favours and side quests but not 11 hours worth). It’s still an impressive achievement in many ways, Bear McCreary’s score is great, the ensemble cast is fantastic, with some truly stunning performances, and I enjoyed the way different companions weaved in and out of the story - helping to switch up combat encounters (and even playable characters) and keep things feeling fresh right through to the end so despite the rocky start I’m still glad I got to experience Kratos’ latest adventure, even though it’s very much an evolution of the 2017 reboot the team at Santa Monica Studio have still managed to deliver some genuinely awe-inspiring moments that push the boundaries of the medium. One thing I’ve noticed when playing through some big games recently is how little I engage with some of their systems, with Bayonetta and Ragnarok I hardly bothered with the skill trees and with Ragnarok specifically I didn’t touch the crafting system or really care much about loot or amour at all - it seems like developers shoehorn in all these extra mechanics because other games are doing it, or in a bid to make the game seem more substantial, but a lot of the time they end up feeling completely inconsequential. I almost never play games on mobile but with Downwell creator Ojiro Fumoto’s new game Poinpy being an Android & iOS exclusive I fired up my Netflix app and downloaded it onto my phone. For those who aren’t aware, Poinpy is another vertically oriented rogue-like but instead of going down you’re moving up, collecting fruits as you go to feed the hungry cat that’s snapping at your heels - recipes appear on screen while a timer ticks down and, if you fail to collect the required fruits, the cat unleashes a fireball that takes out one of Poinpy’s hearts. It gets more complicated as you progress, the recipes growing from a single fruit to half a dozen of different kinds as you feed the cat and the ‘gourmet level’ rises, you only start off with two jump orbs, being able to jump twice before having to land to refill, but you can bounce off enemies and obstacles to recharge mid-combo, but you steadily unlock more jump orbs as you progress through the game, as well as being able to swap in a variety of abilities (like Hades boons) that help you build up bigger and bigger combos. It’s incredibly addictive so it’s no surprise that I became hooked, the goal is to make it all the way to gourmet level 20 but if you die, as with other rogue-likes, its right back to the start again so it’s all about maximising your time in the lower levels, building up a massive combo without losing any health in order to catapult Poinpy to the latter stages as quickly and painlessly as possible. It’s a bit more forgiving than Fumoto’s first game, with a friendlier and more colourful visual style, but it’s as mechanically deep as Downwell, offering up hours of challenging fun (and a less stressful puzzle mode to boot) - I can’t recommend it highly enough, anyone with a phone and a Netflix subscription should definitely give it a go, it’s right up there amongst the best games of 2022. The last game I played in November has a bit of a lengthy title - Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk and Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk, which I played on Switch. It’s actually two games in one, Milk inside… came out a few years ago and is only 20 mins or so in length while Milk outside… is more recent and a bit more fleshed out than its predecessor - essentially they are visual novels telling the story of a depressed girl’s trip to the shop to buy a bag of milk. Social interactions are a scary prospect, she lives an isolated life holed up in her bedroom and her overactive imagination (couple with the myriad of medication she takes for her mental health issues) warp and distort her perceptions of reality. There’s an awful lot about the games that I can relate to, I suffer with severe depression and anxiety and am quite introverted, with a tendency to overthink things, it almost feels like the kind of thing I could have made when I was a teenager or in my early 20’s (if I’d had more drive and programming knowledge), so despite the crude presentation (particularly of the first game) I found my hour or so with the game to be incredibly impactful. Besides relating to the main character’s thoughts and feelings I was also won over by the music, for such a short game there is a great deal of variety to the soundtrack, ranging from unsettling drones and noise to catchy, atmospheric ambient pieces - the developers were even kind enough to offer a juke box to check out the tracks in isolation. I’ll definitely try to keep an eye out for the developers next work, whether that be a direct follow up or something completely different, they seem to be on the same wavelength as me so chances are I’ll get a lot out of it. As we approach the end of the year I noticed that I’ve played through quite a few 2022 releases so I thought I would spend December seeing if I could get through a few more before the GOTY discussions begin.

You should give the darts a chance at least @Glen-i - it's the best thing about the Xmas season! As ever I'm really looking forward to the start of the World Championships, as you highlighted in your post there are lots of interesting narratives this year that will add intrigue from the very first session. I'm particularly looking forward to seeing how Josh Rock and Beau Greaves perform on their debuts but first and foremost I'll be supporting Michael Smith, hoping he can follow up that long awaited first major by clinching the biggest prize there is. Besides the German's who are your outside picks for a good run in the championships @drahkon? I think Alan Soutar is likely to back up his good performance at the Grand Slam and I wouldn't be surprised to see RVB upset Price again in the third round. MVG is certainly the man to beat, the form he's been in this year he's going to take some stopping, but the field is so strong these days that it's hard to predict how it's actually going to pan out. Anyway, can't wait for it to start - roll on Thursday!

I think it's a bit unfair to say that the whole England team bottled it, they were the better team on balance of play - and it was just an unfortunate miss from the spot that stopped them from taking it to extra time. France weren't exactly convincing though, don't really deserve to go through but that's football - hopefully Morocco can keep the run going in the semi final and knock them out.

It looks great, big departure for the series in terms of tone and artstyle but I'm excited to check it out. I'd assumed it was going to be a shorter experience though, maybe a couple of hours maximum, so I was surprised to find out it's £50 on the eShop so I guess it might be more substantial than expected

To be fair it's probably been the best Game Awards show they've done, still too many ads and overblown reveals (and not enough time spent on, you know, actually giving out awards) but it's been more enjoyable a watch and they revealed Death Stranding 2, Hades 2 and an unexpected Bayonetta spin off so I've already got more than I expected

Bayonetta: Origins announced - huge departure for the series in terms of artstyle and tone but it looks incredible, out in March!

Christopher Judge's speech was something - I love the guy but making poor Al Pacino hang around on stage for so long like a lemon was pretty cruel. Well deserved though, don't blame him for making the most of the moment

Has anybody's pro-controller (or joy-cons I guess) ever remapped the buttons on its own all of a sudden? It just happened to me, I'm playing SIGNALIS so at first I thought it might be intentional, but when I finally managed to figure out how to get to the home menu the problem persisted. Thankfully updating the controllers firmware seems to have fixed the issue, and it's back to normal for the time being, but I do wonder if it's a sign that my launch pro controller might be on its last legs - served me well for 5 years at least.

I'll be watching, will probably regret my decision to do so but I'm usually up late anyway so I might as well check it out. Apparently Keighley said they've tried to make it shorter than previous ceremonies so hopefully it's a bit better paced and doesn't drag on too long - not really expecting much in the way of announcements but there's always a chance something exciting is revealed.

We may have already done this in another thread when the eShop closure was announced but, given its the 10 year anniversary - and there are only a few months left before the eShop is gone for good - I thought it would be good to highlight any exclusives that other may have missed. Anybody have any recommendations, any obscure or interesting eShop games that might have been overlooked in other lists?

@drahkon have you been watching the Grand Slam darts this week? It's been a bit good - absolutely incredible matches tonight, Barney was phenomenal!

Nintendo Life are selling eShop credit with a 10% discount too, I'm tempted to splurge on a few big games I've missed out on

I wondered why Switch Pro was trending on Twitter again... I don't think more powerful hardware would solve the problem though, like Glen mentioned Game Freak just aren't given enough time to iron out the kinks and it's not like they have the greatest technical team in the first place

It's incredibly depressing that it's already been 10 years, I remember the launch well as it was the first console that I was able to buy on release. I put in a pre-order for the Premium ZombiU edition at Game and booked the day off work, waking up at 8am and heading to the shop as soon as it opened but the first few hours were incredibly frustrating - after getting home and setting everything up I had a real struggle connecting the console to the internet so I couldn't download the required firmware update to actually start playing the thing. Eventually, after calling up Virgin Media for advice, I was able to get it connected to the wifi and get stuck into the games - as well as ZombiU I picked up New Super Mario Bros. U and Nintendo Land and I spent the rest of the day flitting between them, having a great time. I continued to play daily for a few years after launch, picking up the likes of FIFA 13, Super Mario 3D World, The Wind Waker HD, Mario Kart 8, Super Smash Bros, Twilight Princess HD, Star Fox Zero, Captain Toad, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze as well as a host of eShop titles - my favourites being The Swapper, Affordable Space Adventures, Fast Racing Neo and The Fall - and a tonne of Virtual Console games but looking back now I feel bad for not engaging with the system more than I did, I missed a fair few of the exclusive releases (I still haven't got round to playing Xenoblade X) and I only dipped my toe in the water with Miiverse and Mario Maker, I wish I'd put more effort in during those first few years when the community was at its most vibrant. I still go back to the Wii U occasionally now, as I mentioned I've been meaning to play Xenoblade X for a while but put my plans on hold once Xenoblade 3 was announced for the Switch, so there I'll still get plenty of enjoyment out of the system for a good while yet but there are undeniable issues with the hardware and operating system. The Gamepad feels quite cheap and creaky these days, it was never the most elegant device but compared to the Switch it really does feel like a toy, and the battery doesn't last very long at all but the most jarring thing about playing the Wii U in 2022 is how sluggish the operating system is - navigating the menus and the eShop is a real chore which is a shame because the interface is good for the most part, I love the idea of the Mii Plaza and how vibrant and large the icons are on the home screen but its all let down by its slow performance. Despite the glaring issues, the muted launch and lack of traction in the market, the limitations of the hardware and operating system, the Wii U will always hold a special place in my heart. Even though they struggled to utilise the Gamepad properly, Nintendo produced a glut of great games and the concept laid the groundwork for what was to come with the Switch - it might have been a failure but it was a glorious one, and a necessary one so that Nintendo could learn from their mistakes and knock it out of the park with their hybrid system.

Yeah, I had the same thought about Nibellion - very weird to give them a nomination. Happy to see Xenoblade get recognised in a few categories, it would be incredible to see it win Best Music or GOTY but it faces some stiff competition.

I'm 50/50 between Elden Ring and God of War - Elden Ring definitely had a bigger cultural impact, it was all anybody talked about for a few weeks, and Miyazaki has obviously won it before with Sekiro, but God of War also won the top award in 2018 and has the advantage of coming out more recently & being a more focused narrative experience.

Nominations for The Game Awards are announced tomorrow evening, 5pm UK time. I haven't played too many new releases this year but I would love to see Xenoblade 3 get a few nominations, it's always been overlooked in the past so it would be incredible if it got a nod for GOTY. Elden Ring and God of War are nailed on for nominations in the major categories and Horizon is the sort of thing that usually gets awards recognition but besides that I think GOTY nominations are pretty open. Hopefully they don't play it safe like they have done in the past, it would be awesome to see Bayonetta and Kirby in the mix for GOTY.