Hero-of-Time

Yeah, Dondoko Island wasn't that great and I didn't really care for it much. I think it was the last thing I done for the platinum. I put it off as far as much as I could and then just bit the bullet and got through it. This is generally the best way to go and then you can always switch back if need be. The grind here isn't nearly half as bad as it was for Yakuza: LAD. Truth. Also truth.

What weapon are you rocking?

Yeah, it's a shame how this keeps happening. It's why I opted for the PS4 version of the Tomb Raider collection last year, rather than going with the PS5 version. I wonder if with the release of this game if it has any effect on the price of the PS1 versions? A lot of the time retro games go down in price but sometimes they shoot up instead. I know Silent Hill on the PS1 recently got a price bump thanks to the release of the Silent Hill 2 remake. Granted, not the same kind of situation but it's always interesting seeing the prices of retro games being influenced by modern releases.

My GOTY contender was just released today and I picked it up straight away. No regrets. I look forward to playing it when I get in from work.

Yeah, got all the gold crowns and just like when we all played it in the game club, the level I struggled with the most was the first one.

Yah, they should be fine. There should be nobody carting, especially during low rank quests.

It had a very steep learning curve. I know a lot of people didn't care for it.

The PS4 version recently got a free PS5 version upgrade. I can see me playing this again. I think it was 2021 when I last played it.

It's just a necessary evil in order to gain success. I mean, the numbers don't lie. It's already been a fantastic start for Capcom and their financials and it will continue to go from strength to strength, with new content constantly getting added and the possibility of a Switch 2 version. Agreed about the combat though. Using the LS has never felt better. Some of the combo's and damage you can do are insane. I did find myself missing the Spider-Man mechanic from Rise though. There have been a couple of times where my gaming instincts have kicked in whilst playing this and I was actually pressing the buttons is if I could swing through the air again.

Yeah, if all of this goes ahead I can see the days of physical games being brought to a close. The pandemic already accelerated this shift and this will probably be another thing that will force publishers to scrap hard copies. Physical sales have been dwindling for years now, with the lion's share of sales now going to digital. Sad times.

Disappointing, if true. Gears multiplayer was an absolute blast and completely unique, even to this day. They should at least bring back Horde mode. On the plus side, if there's no multiplayer mode that also means there shouldn't be a SERIOUSLY achievement/trophy in this version of the game. Those things were brutal.

Sadly not. I'll get to it eventually but there's no need to buy it yet as I won't get around to it for a while.

My PlayStation also got a good hammering last month. I've been wanting to clear some of my double platinum backlog for a while now and I knocked a few of them off the list. I also played through Lego DC Super Villains, the newly added classic on PS+ Indiana Jones game and Star Wars Demolition (they finally added trophies to it). Platimums earned/games finished.

I've been making an effort to play through some of my Switch backlog in prep for the Switch 2 and knocked a few games out last month. I really enjoyed my time with Advance Wars 1. I loved the challenge it offered when trying to get S ranks on the levels. Some of the maps were pretty brutal and took a fair few replays in order to achieve it. I've started Advance Wars 2 but have shelfed it for a while as I was little burnt out after playing the first game. These were great games. I've read about them on various sites and I figured I would give them a whirl, especially when you consider how cheap they are. Definitely worth checking out if you want something to play for a couple of hours. Crazy to think that the last time I played this was during the game Club thingy we used to run on the forums. I was very happy to see this hit the NSO service. This has been on my backlog for ages now and I decided to finally tackle it. As I said, there's no way I was going for 100%. The AI is already pretty brutal on the standard difficulty and having to take it on again but won a harder difficulty and with every character (meaning learning completely different move sets) is just too much.

I'm pretty disappointed by it. The game is ridiculously easy to the point where there is next to no challenge at all. I had the credits rolling in 10 hours and not once did I have to grind for materials. I know companies want to appeal to a larger audience but the pendulum has swung too far with this entry. This is why I will always respect FromSoftware for sticking to their guns for so long when it comes to their Souls games. I honestly don't see the point to the massive maps that Capcom have created. There's no real exploring to be done because all you need to do is jump on your creature and it automatically takes you to where you need to go. It's as if the game has been made for people who can't stay off their phone for 5 seconds and it gives them the opportunity to look at it while the game plays itself. Crown hunting has been nerfed now to the point of where there is no prestige to it at all. Being able to see if it's a crown or not before fighting the thing is just ridiculous. Again, it's removed all challenge of this aspect of the game. The weak point/breaking mechanic is ridiculously broken. I like the fact you can do a lot of damage to monsters this way but there's no way it should be rewarding players with drops/items every time it's done. This is what has removed the grinding mechanic of the game, something that always made Monster Hunter what it was. Adding to this is the way investigations now show if a rare item will be dropped in the rewards. They may as well just give players rubies/plates etc. as a standard reward. I've put just over 30 hours into the game and have already got most the trophies, built the best armour in the game, nearly maxed it out and nearly built every LS that's available. It's low on content and challenge. It's essentially babies first Monster Hunter and this is very evident as I've been playing Monster Hunter Freedom on the PSP side by side with this. Despite all of this negativity, I'm still enjoying the game though. 😛

The PS Blog has highlighted some cheats that can be used in the game, as well as a more modern style control scheme. https://blog.playstation.com/2025/01/22/star-wars-episode-i-jedi-power-battles-launches-tomorrow-cheat-codes-and-modernized-controls-revealed/?sf276149504=1

Not too surprising given the other cancellations. I wonder if Fairgame$ will still make it to release? That thing got slammed just as hard as Concord and it only had a teaser trailer.

Here's the list of games leaving the service next month.

I absolutely loved the original game on the Xbox but strangely never played the sequel.

This one was quite a surprise. The game is a RPG where the aim is to obtain and evolve your weapons to make progress in the game. You start off with a catcher gun that is used on monsters to catch them. These monsters can then be fed into your normal weapons to power them up. Feed enough of them into the weapon and you can evolve it into something more powerful. You can also increase the base power of the weapon by simply killing monsters with it. Both of these things were right up my street and allowed me to do lots of grinding to become pretty OP very early on. The combat system has you gunning down monsters but you can't just fire a constant stream of bullets. You have a power bar that is pretty much a stamina bar. Each of your weapons has it's own bar and so it's beneficial to carry a few with you so you can swap on the fly when you need to recover stamina for a weapon. Monsters respawn when you exit and re-enter an area. This makes for some fast exp farming if you can find an area that suits you. The story is a bit of a mess and isn't helped by the fact that the translation is all over the place. You essentially work with a demon to try and obtain the ultimate weapon. You clear an area, go back to see the demon and a new area will unlock. You just need to work your way through each of the stages, take on bosses and see the ending. The fun is in finding new weapons, grinding exp and then evolving them to see what you get. It was great coming across a game like this. It's one I've never heard of, it's a breezy RPG at around 5 hours long and it offered a nice change from all the fighting games that are in this collection.

Yup, my journey through the Neo Geo games continues. Once again this is another fighting game and probably my favourite so far. The amount of unlockable things on offer is very generous and so there is plenty to aim for. When playing through story mode you will earn points that you can spend in the store on such things as endings, profiles and mini games. There are plenty of characters to unlock as well and I quite like how this is done. When you complete the game you will see a characters ending but eventually you will unlock what is essentially the second half of the game and it's here you will need to play through story mode again to earn the true ending for each of the characters. It gives the player a good amount of replay value. It took a while to unlock them all. Character Endings

I suppose it depends on how easy it is to port games over. If it's a simple process then I can't see why they wouldn't bring everything over. Elden Ring is a must though and I think if they only bring one game over it will be that.

That's the one I've been seeing recently as well.

Nope. The Launch Edition is still sat sealed on the shelf. Maybe it can be part of my 2026 Gaming Pledge.