Sheikah

No, Essential is the same price as what Plus is now. Plus already costs 10 dollars a month if you are to pay by the month, instead of annually.

Quiet, you detractors, lest you be tarnished. On Friday there will be a reckoning. The prophecy has said so.

That's a well timed, nuisance "HEY!" to go with your broken bones, good sir!

You get the steel book only from ordering direct from Namco Bandai is my understanding. Not that I'm bothered mind - I've gotten into a habit of selling games afterwards now. So much money to be reclaimed!

Digital Foundry say it's great. To quote the title of the article: "Horizon is a technical masterpiece on PS4 and Pro". You'll also get a free upgrade to the PS5 version should you buy one down the line. I would generally advise to wait though, these first party games tend to be less than half the price within a year.

Hoo boy. This really sucks. Like, they've totally reversed their attitude to virtual console now. I don't want to pay their 30+ quid annual sub just to play some VC games now. It really reinforces my earlier point that getting a couple of games a month on this subscription is going to be so slow - it'd take decades to get anything close to a decent catalogue.

I was thinking you'd enjoy this one. Good fun so far, and you can pick it up around a tenner now if you don't mind going preowned.

So I picked the PS5 version of this up off eBay the other day for the grand total of a tenner delivered. I've played about 6 hours or so but I have to say, I'm impressed! Ubisoft have actually done a pretty good job of making an open world with a lot of different content that isn't all just copy and paste. Now obviously it takes heavily from Breath of the Wild, but weirdly it doesn't really feel similar. Probably because the battle system is much more arcadey, and it feels a lot easier to get around. Considering how stupidly cheap I got this for I am very pleasantly surprised. It's a shame it seems to be quite overlooked compared to Assassin's Creed because I'd go as far to say that the gameplay at least surpasses it.

The only caveat I'll say to this is if you're someone who sells games afterwards on places like eBay. Owing to fluctuations in prices that you get with non-Nintendo games, I've been able to pick up games for cheaper than they should have been off eBay, complete them, then sell them for more than I bought them. This was particularly helpful for Ghost of Tsushima, where I made about £12. I was happy about that given how disappointing a game it was! Anyway though this game sounds really fantastic from some of the reviews I've read, and I loved the original. I won't be picking it up anytime soon (especially with Elden Ring round the corner) but it's good to hear that it's great.

I'd say don't bother, most of these types of games end up around £25 or less within a year. I rarely buy at launch now and only in specific circumstances. I've pre-ordered Elden Ring because the closed network test was fantastic and it's under £40. If there's a Nintendo game I really want then I'll also probably buy at launch, knowing it will probably never reduce in price much.

Perhaps, but this feels more similar. If you look at that GIF of Kirby inhaling the car, he literally is becoming a hat for the car and then controlling the clunky car, which is like what Mario was doing by capping things. With Kirby it has usually been about copying powers - you were still playing as Kirby but with an altered moveset (i.e. you were never just the thing you swallowed, you were a Kirby-fied version). Admittedly the ability to copy powers is still there, but the capping aspect looks to be lifted from Mario Odyssey. Looking at the trailer for the new Kirby game it does look and feel a lot more Mario-like, too. Like they are trying to turn Kirby into more of a Mario game than have it be its own thing. Splatoon 2 was on Switch, so why a Splatoon 3? Can't they just add more levels to Splatoon 2 like they are doing with Mario Kart? Same as what they are doing with Xenoblade - we've had a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 on Switch already! There's so many other series that deserve the spotlight. Are we to take that they're doing this because it's easy money - reusing the same engines, staff and assets? I will point out that I loved the first Xenoblade Chronicles back on the Wii. It was great. But there is something to be said from less is more. We've had sequels in terms of Xenoblade X, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and now Xenoblade Chronicles 3. I don't feel like the first 2 sequels came close to the original game, to be honest. I know some people love this series but I can't see what good having a third sequel so soon will do for it. I really think it's a series that could benefit from waiting for the next Switch successor before releasing a new title. It's the kind of series that relies on large scale and having an open world; on more powerful hardware it could be quite something.

Is it just me or is this treading on the ground that Mario already walked over in Odyssey? Basically "put your hat on the daft thing to become the daft thing." While the Kirby game looked like fun I couldn't help but think they were making it almost a Mario 2.0 now, whereas before Kirby had felt like more of a thing of its own. Overall the Direct seemed fine, if a little lacking in properly new and exciting content. I can't quite figure out a few choices though - Splatoon 3? Who is asking for this at this point? I know its a popular game but does it need sequel after sequel? Isn't it mostly based around individual multiplayer levels - which could be DLC at this point? And Xenoblade Chronicles 3 - there's another sequel that probably wasn't needed. They've already had Xenoblade Chronicles X and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in a fairly short space of time. It can't just be me thinking they could do with branching out a little and shelving these series for now, and reimagining other series that have been forgotten?

I thought it linked fantastically with the original Chrono Trigger, especially with the characters that "return". The fact it seems like it's fairly unrelated to the original game up until a certain point was also a stroke of genius, I thought. I struggle to think of another game that had me thinking about the story for so long after completing it. It's complex and there's a lot to unpack, but it's completely worth it.

I'm really happy about this, Chrono Cross is one of my favourite RPGs and severely underappreciated (in part because it was never officially released here). If you liked the world of Chrono Trigger then you're in for a treat - the story of this game really connects well with the original game (while not seeming that way at first). Other positives include lack of random battles, no grinding enemies for XP (as everyday enemies don't level you up), alternate dimensions and quite simply one of the best soundtracks to a game ever. This game gets some criticism which I don't think is particularly deserved (often focusing on the game having too many characters, which isn't really important IMO). I was thinking about the story in this game long after it finished.

I'm really just pretending to be bitter here. The racket I had going on in Mew trades due to having a gameshark back in the day was something to behold.

Really? For all this time I believed that the Japanese versions gave you Mew for getting all 150, instead of a certificate. You saying that's smelly chat?

In terms of progression/rewards, can we all agree that replacing Mew with a certificate in the western releases of Pokémon Blue/Red was bullshit of the highest order.

There is always a shortcut in both biomes 1 and 4, letting you skip past biomes 2 and 5, respectively. In biome 1 the shortcut to biome 3 is if you hookshot a couple of times over a gap/bridge to go through a door rather than go through the usual Stargate-like portal. In biome 4 the shortcut is just before the boss, near the regular portal to the next level. That shortcut involves you dropping down into the water to skip to biome 6. The guaranteed pickup at the start of biomes 2, 3, 5 and 6 ups your proficiency level a significant amount if you are under levelled (e.g. due to skipping biomes) so it makes using the shortcuts viable. Basically these shortcuts let you skip to specific biomes quicker in case you need to do just those biomes (e.g. missing collectibles). Basically, if you don't want to skip biomes then don't take those shortcuts. You will generally be quite a bit weaker and have less gear if you skip biomes.

Yeah, I agree with a lot of what you said. It didn't need to be a roguelike, it's certainly the roguelike with the longest individual runs that I've ever played. It's also not difficult at all, yet weirdly has a reputation for being difficult. I died so little in this game. After leaving biome 1 I proceeded to beat every boss in one run without dying. Also I'd definitely recommend not going for the plat. Huge amount of RNG bullshit in terms of hoping you encounter specific room layouts. I may sound negative in this post, so just want to say I did enjoy this game an awful lot.

The carbine was my favourite weapon too. My favourite secondary fire was Doom Bringer. You charge the alt fire and release a big moving purple ball that damages everything nearby, and does extra damage at whatever it hits. It has a fairly long cooldown and you need to charge it, but it really does clear the shit out of the room and do loads of damage. Voidbeam is also good for concentration a lot of damage on a single target (and bosses), and shockstream can be good for taking out annoying flying enemies that are hard to hit. I would always avoid vertical barrage if I could, didn't find that very useful at all. As for passive weapon traits, definitely taking leech rounds for the carbine if you see it. Heals you quite often when attacking, it's so very useful. Rising pitch is also great for increasing your rate of fire (and therefore chance to trigger the healing effect of leech rounds). I would keep hold of a carbine with these abilities even if I was much further on and seeing much higher level weapons. It's just that good.

You would be surprised. Destiny 2 makes loads of money from microtransactions. In that sense you could argue it's a better buy (in terms of profitability) than Bethesda, which was much more expensive for Microsoft to buy. Across their studios Bethesda make a lot of single players games with far less microtransaction revenue. Also many of Bethesda's games take a very long time to come out, so there's that to factor in too. One of their main series hasn't had a new title in 11 years (Skyrim) and the next one is still miles out. I'd argue that Bungie make the best FPS games in terms of how the gunplay feels so there is a prestige element to this acquisition too. Basically, I can see why Sony would put value in their talent and pedigree, as they're likely to do a great job in whatever future games they release. Also, let's be real, there's no way this deal (or the cost of buying them) is a reaction to Microsoft's recent mega acquisition. These deals (including the valuation) take months to iron out. It's not like they would have been close to a deal at 1 billion then 2 weeks ago they immediately tripled their offer in reaction to the Activision Blizzard deal. It's very likely to be a reaction to slightly older acquisitions, though. And in general, it sucks.

This is on sale for a tenner on the PSN store, so I bought it. I've been really enjoying it so far. It's a roguelike with cel-shaded graphics; basically a quirky comic book-style FPS where you go room by room through spaceships strewn across a galaxy. It's funny how it's the cheaper games these days that tend to be the most enjoyable ones, at least for me.

Based on the current pricing structure. In future I'm betting that these prices will rise significantly if the game pass model becomes standard across the industry. Microsoft are bankrolling this now but eventually they'll want to make money from it.

Well sounds like they're going to be putting older past gen games onto it, too, possibly as a tier upgrade to Plus. Not sure that's what you're looking for though. I really hope Game Pass doesn't take off across the whole industry as the de facto game distribution method, it seems pretty clear to me that it's a bit of a Trojan horse. Cheap and attractive now but very likely to become expensive if standard distribution methods become phased out. The promotions that are always running make it a no brainer right now but they surely won't last forever.

It won't be a Game Pass competitor, Sony have already said they have no plans to release first party games onto a subscription.