Dufniall

Do we have to ask for Hollow Knight Silksong again? Yes we do! Come on Team Cherry, it's bloody time!

Now that I've finished my first playthrough of Bayonetta, it's time to pick this up again. I've been enjoying it, there's a lot to do in Splatopolis. I'm slowly working my way through the single player, which is a lot better than the one in Splatoon 2 (didn't play the Octo Expansion though). Salmon Run is a joy to play, with some new bosses and a superboss around this time. Turf War is still good as always, although I haven't played that many matches yet. Same goes for the Ranked Mode, although it's nice to play some Rainmaker or Splatzones again! And if you really don't know what to do there is always the card game to enjoy. Two things still bother me though. Why are we still locked on two stages per game mode? And why do I still get kicked out of lobbies when the game changes the stages?

I've finished the game earlier this week (kind of blasted through it for review purposes). It's amazing. Graphics may be the biggest letdown, as the Switch is definitely struggling at points and is now showing that it can not really hold these kind of ambitious projects. PlatinumGames have crammed a ton of different gameplay in the game without straying too far from the core: straight-up action. The Demon Slave mechanic is more balanced than I thought it would be. As you can summon them whenever, you'd think it's way too overpowered but it costs magic plus you are vulnerable to hits as you can't move. Some of the Demons you find are insane, not going to spoil them though Viola is a nice addition although I do prefer Bayonetta to play with. The Jeanne 80s spymovie sequences are also a fun intermission in between regular chapters. Soundtrack is intense, and the storytelling is even more wild this time. The general plot isn't that great, but the way it's executed scores points. The ending is wild though, again, not going to spoil it! And there is still plenty to find and unlock, so will definitely put some more time in this.

First 3 hours in and man oh man what a ride. Bayonetta is as sassy as ever, action is bigger than ever, and some sequences change up the gameplay completely. Won't say too much until I finish it and not to spoiler anything but it's a rollercoaster alright!

I've been playing this game recently, and finished the campaign early this week: After that I decided to keep on playing a little bit to unlock the 3 extra worlds, plus to get all the materials for crafting the extra songs. And I enjoyed it a lot! I've never played a KH game, but I do remember watching the trailer with Simple and Clean as the soundtrack over and over. The game is brimming with content. So many songs, 3 levels of difficulty plus a bunch of extra modes and settings to change playstyle. It's great to have some Disney songs included, like Let It Go, or remixes of Disney songs. But it's also a treat to hear the original soundtrack of the KH games. Visually it does get distracting sometimes, and the timing took a couple of songs to get used to. Enemies pop up unexpectedly now and then which feels unfair but it's definitely not a dealbreaker and does not happen too often. The whole story kind of went over my head, but I know the series is notorious for having an uncomprehensible story anyway. Nice to see they make it canon at the end, definitely what fans of the series wanted. All in all a great package, I wasn't expecting this when I picked it up on a whim for a tenner. Now please please please Nintendo, make a game like this with the Smash Bros. Ultimate soundtrack!

I'm definitely interested but at the moment I have Splatoon 3 to play and Bayonetta 3 coming up. Knowing Ubi games will go half price within half a year, I can wait for it.

You can. Get a Steam Deck, buy RE4, download the graphics mod, and use gyro aiming settings. Voila!

New trailer: Alternative Bayonettas, a stealth minigame, controllable Demon Slaves. This game is starting to look amazing, although I guess this means the story will be even more all over the place then in parts 1 and 2. Can't wait!

What the hell was that? I'm getting too old for this:

This. The voices as we know them are good for the games, but I couldn't stomach 1,5 hours of Martinet Mario, a shrill Toad and a rumbling Bowser. Plenty of humour in the teaser already, and happy seeing Luigi is there!

Having that Pokémon as the thumbnail for the video also didn't help in the surprise. One thing that bugged me the most is that the top half of those picknick sandwiches look extremely realistic and not fitting in with the rest of the art style at all haha. Also:

It's available at the start of the game. Only if there are some "big" announcements like a Splatfest, those you can't skip. But the level highlights and grizzco news can be skipped.

All the best Julius, I hope you can work things out.

We discussed about this on the Discord last week, but wouldn't it be something if Nintendo would make a game like this? Imagine a Smash Bros Ultimate spin-off rhythm game with that soundtrack. Oh my.

Splatoon day people! My order arrived today, looking forward to jump in as soon as the baby is in bed. I'm on holiday next week with no/bad WiFi so for the remainder of the week I guess it's single player time.

For those looking to stockpile Atlus games, a bunch of them are on sale now on the 3DS eShop, including 2 Shin Megami Tensei games and a number of the Etrian Odyssey games.

I have these and they're pretty comfortable. Definitely a lot more ergonomic. The only thing to consider is they don't have rumble, batteries and NFC. So your Switch depletes faster. Also you can't scan amiibo. They don't look that great either although the new ones are prettier than the Daemon X Machina version I have. There is a new set out that also comes with a wired inbetween bit so you can use them as a wired controller as well: They also announced a Split Pad Fit, but that looks smaller so I think the Pro is better if you're looking for something bigger.

So apparently Retro worked on a Wii Zelda game that never saw the light. DYKG has an exclusive video including interviews. The game was to focus on the last male Sheikah. Haven't watched the whole thing yet but damn! Quite a discovery and I never knew this was in the works.

It's almost as if they first wanted to do another Galarian Ponyta stream again but thought no, we can't do that to people again! I'd expected it to be more... Cuddly. And the paintings also work as traps for other Pokémon, so did he eat that Scatterbug?

This is now €10 in the Square Enix webshop: https://store.eu.square-enix-games.com/en_EU/product/611832/kingdom-hearts-melody-of-memory-switch

Three basses at the moment (2 5-strings and a 4-string), plus an electric guitar and an acoustic guitar. I do tend to stick with one for the 5-strings. But occasionally mood strikes and I pick up one of the other ones. Especially the Thunderbird being a 4-string plus just being sexy means I use that as well for stuff such as playing along with songs that don't need a 5-string, or in Rocksmith.

Oh, and I see I haven't even shown of my newest addition that I bought a year ago: A Yamaha TRBX 505 TBL five string bass. Feels great, plays great, and looks damn stylish. The biggest "gimmick" is that it has a passive/active switch. So you can either play with active elements, or if you want a passive tone or your battery runs out, just flip a switch! To be honest I like the passive tone better so that's all that I've been using. It's a bit more punchy than my other 5-string which has quite a warm, fuzzy tone so for the type of music I play with the band now it has a more fitting sound.

My copy is gone. The single player is a bit of a joke, and I don't have the time to polish my skills to keep going at this competitive online. The ranking system isn't that great so you still get slaughtered a lot online. Playing for a Club is fun for a while but the way the results are based (instead of number of wins it is who gets the most points, so having a full team who plays a lot racks up more points, even if you lose a lot). The rewards you get are low, and there hasn't been any quirky seasons except for maybe an only bombs as item one. We did have a pretty cool competition with some guys on Discord but there's no way to organize it in-game. I can't believe how barebones the whole online service is. The free DLC added more characters that could have easily have been unlockables. It's a shame, I wanted to give this a proper chance and try my skills, but there just is no incentive to keep going. I traded it in and got myself Age of Calamity, already had more fun with that than with Strikers!

It took me 12 years but I've finally finished Xenoblade Chronicles! I started this on the Wii, but stranded about halfway. Now, on the Switch the credits rolled on this game's Definitive Edition. It sure has been a ride. First of all the Definitive Edition definitely helped. I remember playing this on the Wii and an old (well it wasn't that old back then ) CRT TV and I could barely read the text. Got a bigger TV later which helped but still I never finished it. The updated graphics, QoL and better readable texts at least made the game a lot more playable. Also the mobility of the Switch meant I could play in handheld. The non-spoiler verdict: I hate it and I love it. The setting is awesome, the story engaging when it kicks off in the beginning and near the end. Some environments really stand out, and the music is epic as well. But, the combat is not my cup of tea. Even with the cast of 7 characters, it all felt very repetitive for me. You don't learn that many new moves, and I feel like they didn't impact my playstyle. With Shulk it was always the same tactic of positioning for side and back attacks, and do Topple chains. With Melia it's a matter of mashing Summon arts and Elemental Discharge. Tried the rest as well but wasn't convinced playing as them. Battles got tedious, and what saved them in the end was turning on Casual mode so the normal battles at least went fast. Turned it off for the Boss battles. I know it's an RPG, but there are too many mechanics that in the end didn't really feel they mattered. Gems, I just made sure my slots were filled without paying too much attention to them. Hardly used the crafting. Arts, just kept them levelled up without changing them a lot, just picking the ones I felt were okay. Skill trees, made sure they were filled in without too much attention to what they do. Affinity: takes an age to increase, or use the collectables but that's trial and error and didn't put in the effort. So I missed almost every heart-to-heart. Pacing, the game starts fast but really slogs in the middle, and at the end it suddenly goes all out with twist after twist, and I had at least 3 moments where I thought this is it, but no, another plot twist! It was an epic ending though, have to give them that. Sidequests are pretty dull as well, it's either beat these enemies or go find these collectables. Rewards are not that great except for the XP. A long list of negatives, but luckily the story, music, world building make up for a lot of this. Still, it does make me hesitant to start XC2 or 3. Definitely not in the mood to do so right away. Now, spoiler time!

If you're looking to gamify your playing, I did have a lot of fun playing Rocksmith Remastered. It often is on sale on Steam and it's basically Guitar Hero but with a real guitar. The other thing you need is a cable, the official Rocksmith Real Tone cable goes for around €25 and is basically a USB to jack cable. You can in fact use this cable as well in software such as Guitar Rig that @Fierce_LiNk mentioned. It does take some faffing around with drivers to get it working but there are plenty of sites explaining it. Alternatively you can indeed go the DI route. I don't know about the M-Audio, but I have the Native Instruments Komplete Audio 2. Below post explains what it does and what software comes with it. I also got a free upgrade to Guitar Rig 6. I think next to the quality of the interface device, software is the most important aspect. Luckily, as Fierce mentioned, there are enough free options to get you going. Guitar Rig is a great one, and I'm not sure if you are on Mac/iPad and if Garage Band is still a thing. If you want to record, I'm sure there are free options there as well, and chances are the M-Audio comes with a piece of software for that. This is something I have to look into myself. I use Ableton Live Lite but haven't figured out how to use Guitar Rig in it for the effects recording. Should be possible though. And another bit of good news: since all the Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted, we've finally had some gigs with the band. Played 2 shows with another one coming up this Saturday. Joy!