dan-likes-trees

How come you guys don't hop on the UK ign stuff? I find the IGN UK podcast / staff way more down to earth, funny, and pretty pretty honest in their views, even when they (frequently) juxtapose the IGN US reviews. Agree on you guys on Kinda Funny. The swearing comes across as so cringe inducing and childish, can't stand it. Full on team Frame Trap myself. Love how in depth they go on like.. every game that comes out. Ben's grown on me a lot. The Kotaku Splitscreen podcast is also pretty good these days, mainly because the two hosts are some of the only reporters doing actual journalism in the industry, and they get pretty good guests on as a result. Try dat!

Anyone tried VR on this? It's bloody brill. Game's a bit of a bargain with that factored in. I've never played a wipeout game but very much enjoying this - the sound design has a nice pod-racer-y feel too

Booted this up for the first time in months as a couple of my colleagues are going through it, as I never actually finished it off.. I'm about 70/80-odd shrines in - remembering why I moved on from it now. I'm finding that I'm at the point where I'm doing a lot of aimless wandering at the moment; but as I've found a lot of the shrines there's often very little reward. The first 40-odd hours of the game were amazing, but I'm finding it a bit unrewarding and even frustrating when I spend half an hour looking for shrines or cool stuff on the map, but just find the same old enemies and terrain that I vaguely recognise.. Not a criticism of the game really as I really did think the majority of my playtime was fantastic, but is there a technique for finding missing shrines beyond scouring every corner of the map for controller vibrations? I also feel like I'm barely scratching the surface of the game in some regards (like, no idea what the massive flying chinese dragon things are for instance) but slightly at a loss of how to progress without feeling the hours ebb away..

Yeah I've played a bit and had the same reaction. brilliant that it runs on my ipad, but the controls really make it seem random who comes out of a firefight alive. Also, won my first day with 5 kills - clearly each match is pretty populated by bots - maybe that's how it's running so smoothly - but that definitely buzz of making it to the last ten or whatever

Came on to mention this - first time I've watched a game where it's been used - what an absolute shambles!! Really goes to show how subjective ref decisions are; adding a couple of minutes back and forth on replays doesn't make for a definitive answer. Couldn't believe how much it crushed the pace of that first half - minutes at a time watching the ref with his finger to his ear, truely laughable stuff!

Nice - got that one too - I definitely think that at the processing power and resolution currently available these sort of trippy / experimental games are where VR really excels. I haven't bought it yet but playing the demo for Rez VR really blew me away. I'd be interested to see how you get on with Thumper - I quite like it but have found it to be quite repetitious, particularly visually - plus you can tell it's not really designed for VR since everything's coming at you from one angle; no head movements or anything. Again, definitely suggest double dippingo on Polybius whilst it's so cheap Just to clarify - it's not that I found the PSVR to be bad quality, just that the Samsung VR is actually really impressive, particularly when it's playing pre-rendered content. Thought there'd be more of a step up from a £40 thing to a £300 quid thing I guess

Anyone played Polybius on PSVR? It's like £4 on sale on psn at the moment. Worth every penny! Quite the trip

Probably did get pretty lucky (though I thought that Van Djik toe punt was a penalty for the second) but in any case.... what a monster of a game!!! Two outrageously good goals (Wanyama's missile and Salah's skills), back and forth all through the second half, the missed penalty, the massive delay on the eventual penalty decision, Kane stepping up to put the equaliser away.. Oscar winning drama! Looking at Liverpool's games this season, half of them seem to be that mad; must be a blast / stressful experience supporting them!

IIRC it's right at the start of the new area you unlock with Blood and Wine. It's takes some doing progressing up that tree, but the different routes change the gameplay quite a bit - some fun stuff in there! Jealous you're playing through for the first time - enjoy! In related news.. Camaaaannn!!! That one-word tweet hype

Ha alright, steady on.. I didn't say that's all it's about, but the robot fights are clearly the game's USP; without those what's to distinguish the central concept / plot from that of fallout or any other post apocalyptic tale (an oversaturated genre anyway)? Even fans of the game seem to find the tribal stuff pretty tiring / hackneyed. My point was, as I said, I've an issue with how devoid of humour and levity the game is, and how it seems a bit of a waste of quite a fun concept to have it all buried in self-seriousness. The majority of the best games (alongside TV) of the last few years have a lot of humour amongst the darker themes. Hard to care about any of the characters when none of them speak like real people (the goateed guy in Meridian and Sylus aside). Can't see how Breath of the Wild, a game, unlike Horizon, fundamentally built around using a open world and being widely acclaimed for it, could be comparably improved by being linear but there we go.

Man, I'm glad I'm not alone I think mine is the only negative comment in this thread through the past twenty pages. I'm sticking on with the game as I'm close-ish to the end but still really not feeling it. I'm increasingly thinking that Ashley Burch's performance is maybe one of my main issues - the character comes off as so monotone and portentous, it's really hard to get behind the plot as a result. The talking to herself thing definitely grates too. I think it's definitely the direction not helping rather than necessarily the actress; she seems a much more natural fit in Borderlands. Agreed on the open world. Obviously suffers by comparison to BOTW but I really think this is an example of a game that might've been better as a linear or semi-linear design They seem to have overpopulated the world with machines too, which makes me less inclined to venture off the beaten path - Actually this is one bit I've grown to quite like - it's a pain in the arse as getting anywhere can be a chore if you can't be bothered to take, but it is very cool in that almost any enemy can be hard to beat if you don't properly plan for it. - Looking through the old ruins of places is initially interesting but quite repetitive when 80% of the game's lore seems to come out in the same way. Most of the juicy bits you have to literally stand still and wait to listen for. All the locations also end up looking more or less identical too, even if they again initially look quite interesting. - A lot of the big boss battles I'm not sure if I'm playing right; hiding behind cover and popping out on a lot of them seems the best tactic but also feels at odds with how fluid the rest of the battles are, I'm not sure if I'm cheesing them or not. - The whole game feels way too self serious for a franchise that's literally about Robot Dinosaurs. Anyway, not to toally rag on it - there is stuff I like about the game - when the combat works, against the robos it is pretty excellent, and the sound design on the robots is insanely good, and ultimately I'm glad that such a fresh new big budget IP has done so well, but I'm definitely a lot less impressed than everyone else!

Love this thread. Didn't actually post this last year but mine went quite well Buy a flat - Success! Read 15 books - Just made it in time, success! Finish an out-of-work animation project - Just about a success! Run 120 Miles - Pretty tepid target in hindsight, smashed through it halfway through the year Make decent headway into learning Italian - To my girlfriend's dismay - a failure So, 2018! Read 15 books (again) Run 250 miles Finish an out-of-work animation project on my own rather than with a colleague Do two pages of sketchbook work a week Make a little bit of headway into learning Italian.. again.. suggestions and tips welcome.. Gonna update this post when I think of some others!

Cheers for that guv. Bit the bullet and Amazon Primed them before Christmas day. Glad I did - can't imagine just using the dualshock! So first impressions were... a bit underwhelming? More accurately, since the resolution is about on par with the Gear VR, the best that that has to offer (Smash Hit, the Assassin's Creed trailer / experience) is probably about as impressive. PSVR seem to share similar issues with everything seeming slightly blurry and low res, even if the build quality and screen door is a bit better. After a deeper dive, though, I'm definitely enjoying it a lot, and the motion controls add a lot. Superhot VR is probably the best VR experience I've had - punching a dude in the face, grabbing his pistol as it flied through the air, physically ducking behind cover and popping up to splay some bullets.. it's amazing!! I definitely think the stylised look is more immersive than muddy attempts at realism. Plus it's super satisfying when the enemies crumble apart into polygons. Been enjoying Thumper though I'm not 100% convinced VR adds that much seeings as you're only ever looking at about 120 degrees, Dirt Rally is pretty good fun, and Resi 7 I felt was initially a little underwhelming (everything is so fuzzy, picking up photographs in game I can barely make out what they're meant to be) but playing late last night I was definitely feeling the chills.. going to stick with it Anyone got any other essential experiences? There's a good sale on psn at the moment..

Cheers for that pal. I'll keep in mind that I won't be having a full on sesh on christmas day then! Have used my gear vr a fair bit so hopefully have acclimatised to some extent. Amazon have 2 move controllers for 70 quid. Seems ppreeetttyy steep, but equally I'm keen to get some before chritmas so all the family can have a go. Is that a mental price / any idea where I can get them cheaper?

My other half has strongly hinted that I'll be finding a ps vr under the tree. Very exciting!! What would you psvr owners recommend as essentials? I'll be picking up Resident Evil, Res Infinite and Thumper. Whats the deal with Move controllers? Is there a way of getting them for less than 80 quid? Is this supposed rerelease happening soon? They look worth getting for when I'm with the family over christmas but.. are they?

Seen about 8 conversations scattered around various threads by various folk on here - figured it was about time it got it's own thread! Absolute joy of a game; I put in a good thirty hours late last year, the ultimate stress-relief to come home to after starting a new job IRL. A truely mad undertaking for a solo dev. In a game with so many things to do and the freedom to ignore everything; where have you put your energy? I made it to the bottom of the mine (which I found very fun in a Gameboy Zelda kind of way, though frustrating as when the red mist descends (not metaphorcally)) and general farming, though generally sacked off being social; would have preferred if that side of it was less gift-based and more along the lines of Animal Crossing and natural. How does it compare for you guys to Harvest Moon - and do you find it too much of a blatant rip off to enjoy?

Anyone checked out 50 vs 50 yet? Not quite as structured and exciting as this trailer makes out.. But it's still pretty dope! When you get in a good group and you're just swarming toward the center circle it's a pretty unique experience. Glad they're spicing things up to differentiate further from pubg et al. Generally still absolutely loving / addicted to the game. Got my first double figures kills win the other day. Then looked at my total time played and wondered what I'm doing with my life

Ha! Apologie, only just spotted this. I've got little for you but a couple worth checking out.. Song Exploder - Not so much historical, but it has great musicians on; each episode is another artist breaking down one of their songs, how they come up with, construct and layer it up. Pretty interesting and the bands they have on are pretty high calibre! Have only listened to a couple episodes but Hit Parade from Slate is pretty much what you described; goes through big hits through history and goes through how their influences, why they resonated with their times and their significance after release. My issue with it is that it's pretty rare that he does stuff about bands I'm interested in! Lastly, Unbreak My Chart is a good listen; slightly similar to the above but with current top 40 stuff, looking at why what's popular is popular. That's all I got!

Anyone got Divinity Original Sin 2? The game I most want to play. Shame I have a mac

Glad you're enjoying it @bob ! I remember enjoying the game alot more once I got to Novigrad and Skellige too. Re this post - I'd say that's probably a good shout - actually most of the sidequests are reasonably missable with a few exceptions - Carnal Sins, The Last Wish, and the Skellige family ones spring to mind. The ones that are more like side-strands introduced via the main story are generally worth doing but you can probably skip most of the standard contracts and such. I'd also say drop down the difficulty if you're finding it a slog (I remember the start of the game being pretty tough if you can't be arsed with the witcher potions and all that).

Haha, this is the thing for me too - I wish I had the time (or money!) to be playing enough games to think about game of the year properly! That said, the answer is obviously Breath of the Wild since I've played nothing like it in about ten years and it's a total joy. Fornite might have challenged it since that's like well fun, but given it's a rip off of PUBG, not sure I could morally give it the accolade

44!!! The biggest travesty on this list thus far. Though glad, as you say, it's definitively better than MK64. Thanks for doing this @Nicktendo btw - very enjoyable slow reveal!

Anyone got this yet? Any good? I'm weirdly tempted by it despite disliking Syndicate and not being much of a Horizon fan. The videos I've watched evoke a twang of Witcher nostalgia that I've been pining for. The world looks great - what's the quality of the writing / storylines like?

Hah yeah - tbh until the endgame just stairs and barriers are all you need - just get used to pressing circle then R2 for barrier, circle triangle triangle r2 for stairs. Maybe worth dropping somewhere right on the edge of the map, farming some resources and having a wee practice. In endgame, I find barricading yourself in with vertical blocks, and then adding stairs to the middle works well. That way you can peak over the edge - massive advantage over people running about on the ground below. Make sure you build your endgame-thing with bricks or preferably metal (L1 to switch) And I'd probs be up for that - I'll get you added on psn. Had a look at the newly released stats and felt a bit sick. Seriously addicting game..!!

Yeah, I'm unsure how I feel about it tbh. My initial reaction (which I posted in the battle royale games thread) was the same - I really do feel like it was made solely to beat PUBG / any other competitors to the console market. Totally can see why Bluehole have complained, and the backlash against them doing so seems a bit harsh; even though the genre pre-existed before them, the timing of fortnite BR as you say really makes is seem like a blatent rip off. All that said.. having played a tonne of Fortnite BR I actually think the two games are wildly different, whether intentionally or not. Fortnite is way more fast paced and arcadey in it's gunplay, a lot more vertical in it's design, and way more about dashing around than PUBG, which seems to me (though tbf based only only letsplays) more slow paced and tense, partly from the map being about thrice the size. I've had four victory royales thus far and they've all come because of at least some forms of crafting (building a quick base at the end and peeking out from above it, or crafting stairs to scale a mountain to get the higher ground against the rest of the top 5 etc) - so I do think that goes a long way to differenciate the two. Mechanically it's brilliant; I still feel a bit iffy playing it but everything works so well and is such fun that I've gotten over it.. I think it'll probably ultimately a positive for the genre, as @drahkon says, and it certainly hasn't killed my interest in PUBG when it finally comes to consoles. The whole fiasco has been a bit of a marketing boon for both games!