Ganepark32

This is one that bothers me the most. Sure, there seems to be quite a few critics that loved 12 Minutes but there does seem to be a general consensus that it wasn't too great. And having played it, it really wasn't. The story was god awful (that reveal at the ending was just awful, really awful to the point it almost made me angry that thats where they went with it), the gameplay was so rigid about how it wanted you to approach each loop and I thought the time loop element was only really used in the most basic of sense. Compared to The Forgotten City, like you mention, and it just doesn't compare. There's a reason that The Forgotten City won an award for its writing. Its well researched, its cleverly designed from a gameplay and narrative point of view with some genuinely interesting themes running throughout, a well conceived time loop mechanic that doesn't make you retread old parts over and over (god bless Galerius for being your lackey) and the narrative is genuinely well written and interesting. I don't get how 12 Minutes was nominated for Best Indie over it but that category looks like its stacked for Kena: Bridge of Spirits to win (even though Death's Door and Inscryption are be miles ahead) likewise best Debut Indie even though The Forgotten City should win that

I've more to say that I'll post later but as soon as I saw the Sports/Racing category I knew Forza Horizon 5 wouldn't get a GOTY nomination. I'd love to see the ballots as its the highest rated game of the year and doesn't get a GOTY nomination, that just seems odd to me. There's clear bias when it comes to sports/racing games but still, its got the review scores for a reason. Hitman 3 pretty much snubbed as well. Gutted for IO Interactive as that is my favourite game of the year so far. The curse of releasing in January. Likewise Little Nightmares 2 which should have been nominated for Best Art Direction. The Forgotten City should have been nominated for Best Narrative. An expected set of nominations though. As I say, will maybe post more thoughts later.

A Short Hike is out now on Xbox consoles for anyone who hasn't had a chance to play it on PC or Switch. It's a fantastic game and well worth playing if you want something chilled and laidback.

A Short Hike is out today for PS4 with a 4k mode that reduces the pixelated look if playing on PS4 Pro or through BC on PS5. If you've not had a chance to play on either PC or Switch up to this point, its definitely worth a play if you want a short relaxed experience.

So happy to see Timesplitters 2 and Future Perfect being included in the BC program. Both available for £8.39 each so decent price, will probably pick them up as I have fond memories of playing them on Gamecube with friends years ago. And nice to see Gladius there, always wanted to try it (along with Spartan Total Warrior but unfortunately that won't ever come along now). The BC program has been an amazing initiative from Microsoft but I can understand that there are undoubtedly hurdles in place preventing them for getting more titles to the program. What they've managed to get, however, is fantastic and they should be applauded for getting so many, despite obvious hurdles in place, to work not only on Xbox One but on the newer Series consoles with frame boosts, 4k resolution and HDR. Sure, there's still plenty of games I'd have loved to see come to the program its a shame that they're not likely to make it. I'd have loves to have Remember Me come and Dontnod seem like they want to do something with the IP but Capcom own it and are basically sitting on it. Perhaps they'll remaster it (and refine the combat). But we'll never see the older Burnout games or even some of the James Bond games from the original Xbox/PS2/Gamecube era (for obvious licencing reasons). Hopefully they'll manage to do something to get more down the line. Still, massive kudos to Microsoft for keeping the older generations alive, even if they can't manage it fully.

Multiplayer is officially out today as per the announcement during the Xbox 20th Anniversary stream. Doesn't seem to be downloadable just yet on consoles but its available to Gamepass users as a Beta, with progress carrying forward to the full release on December 8th. Will be downloading as soon as I can. Can't wait to get back into some Halo multiplayer action.

Its probably one of the most open years for GOTY awards, at TGA or otherwise, that I can remember. There isn't a lone game that I can see running away with it like The Last of Us Part 2 or Read Dead Redemption 2 or Breath of the Wild. Rather, there's several spread out across genres that look to be key games that could easily snatch the top award as well as many of the smaller ones. With regards to TGAs and specifically the GOTY award, I'd say there's probably at least 3 games that are sure fire locks for being nominated: It Takes Two, Deathloop and Psychonauts 2. Those 3 are the ones I'd say for sure will be nominated for the big award, with It Takes Two being the "indie" representative (despite being published by EA). There's usually 6 nominees for that award so that leaves 3 open spots and there's certainly a lot of contenders for them, in my eyes at least: RE Village, Returnal, Forza Horizon 5, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Death's Door, Chicory: A Colorful Tale, Tales of Arise, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Forgotten City, Overboard!, Hitman 3, Metroid Dread and Shin Megami Tensei V. There's probably a few others that could be valid choices on top of these. Looking at those games, its really hard to choose. I'd love to see Chicory, The Forgotten City, Death's Door and Hitman 3 up for the top award but I just don't see it happening, likewise for Forza Horizon 5 (its never been nominated for the top award at TGAs and I don't think 5 will buck the trend despite being the best reviewed new released this year). The 3 indie games I mentioned will fall behind It Takes Two as that garnered more word of mouth despite all 3 of these games being phenomenal in their own ways (seriously, play them all but especially The Forgotten City because its incredibly well written). Hitman 3 will likely be forgotten because it released in January which is criminal as its my favourite game of this year so far. I'd probably say that Returnal, Ratchet and Clank and RE Village will be the nominees alongside the ones I mentioned above. Dont think Metroid Dread will grab a nod, though recency bias (not saying its a good game but rather it'll be fresher in people's minds) might have it replace RE Village. Of those, I'd really like to see Psychonaut 2 and Double Fine get the win as the game was everything you could want from a sequel and more and its one of the most creative games this year. Plus, Tim Schafer and the team deserves the win without a doubt. Beyond that, I just hope The Forgotten City gets nominated for Best Narrative. It won't but it should and it should win because its so good (did i say everyone should play it, because you should!) I've played quite a lot of the bigger games of the year that should be up for consideration and I just can't believe people think this has been a week year for games. Sure, AAA delays have been heavy but there's been a strong lineup of AA and smaller budget AAA and indie titles to make up for it and the creativity and breadth of the releases this year had meant something for everyone. Though I will say, having just finished Deathloop last night that I would personally give Hitman 3 the nod over it (and that until I play Returnal, The Forgotten City is the best time loop game of the year that isn't the Outer Wilds DLC).

Been playing it since Thursday thanks to the Premium Add-on Bundle giving early access to the Gamepass version and its so damned good. Sure, its very similar to the previous games but its very much a refinement of what has come before. The cars do feel weightier this time around, thats the biggest difference I've felt in terms of the handling model being more varied. Their depiction of Mexico is so well done. It reminds me a lot of playing Forza Horizon 3 in that the world feels much more varied and more open, there's a lot of freedom to pretty much drive where you want. Its bright and colourful and just looks fantastic even on my Series S. Its also just filled with so much stuff to do. The map slowly fills up as you set up Festival expansions and right now I'm only short maybe 2 and my map is full of icons for things to do, and thats before you include Super7 stuff, the Eliminator and Horizon Arcade. I do feel progression is a lot better this time compared to FH4. You're getting wheel spins more frequently and I've had more money and cars from them than any of the clothing/horn items (though I did get the Battletoads theme as horn. Want that Ori and Halo one though). There's accolades as well that have unlocks attached to them as well, mainly cosmetics or text for in game chat on the d-pad. And levels come thick and fast given the plethora of things to do, as do subsequent Horizon chapters as they dole out XP and progress towards those through pretty much everything. You do have access to pretty much the entire autoshow out the gate and I don't know of it was just a Premium thing for early access but you get a car voucher to buy any car you want. I promptly bought the Rimac electric car because you could only get it through seasonal on FH4 if I remember correctly and I've wanted to drive it in game for years and it's a beautiful car that goes like the clappers. So very impressed with it so far. If they can iron out the online issues then it would be great but even then, its just a phenomenal game to play solo with everything there is to see and do. May end up being my favourite of the series, though the DLC will have to beat Blizzard Mountain and the Hot Wheels ones for 3, but its one of my favourite games of the year easily because its just so much fun to play and so well made.

Forza Horizon 5 releases next week on the 9th but its out tomorrow if you've purchased the Premium Edition or have bought the Premium Add-on Bundle and as the latter works with playing through Gamepass, thats what I picked up. The game went live earlier than morning in New Zealand so myself, like a lot of others going by the likes of Twitter and Era, changed our hardwares location and I've been able to jump in and play 2 hours so far. Playing it on my Series S and it looks incredible on Quality mode (running 1440p at a rock solid 30fps with a Performance mode of 1080p at 60fps available). Wish I could have had a Series X to see how it looked in 4K but I'm satisfied with what the Series S is putting out as it really does look great. The new lighting system is great in motion and the new smoke rendering looks so good. Have been really impressed with the way they both look and have enjoyed powersliding through corners to kick up smoke and dust and see them in action. Its like they've taken the world of FH3 and mixed it with the gameplay additions and improvements that Playground brought with FH4 and its phenomenal. The cars feel more weighty but handle superbly on and off road. And the world, from the small section I've played in so far, is bright, its colourful and just filled to the brim with stuff to do. Its genuinely a superb racer, but that was to be expected with the previous Forza Horizon titles. This so far feels like a culmination of those games in the best way and I can't wait to put hours upon days upon weeks into the game and getting to jump into the online activities out of the gate as opposed to months or even years after release. My favourite FH title was 3 as I loved how open the world felt and how varied Australia felt. 4 felt more one note at times and smaller in vibe. This is very much reminding me of 3 and thats only a good thing. I can easily see this topping 3 as my favourite in the series after spending more time with it. So yeah, so far its another incredible entry into the Horizon series and easily one of the best games of the year (reviews have it averaging at 92 on both Opencritic and Metacritic). And Digital Foundry couldn't be more complementary about it, as an incredible achievement for the new gen Series consoles (its also apparently great still on even the base Xbox One maintaining a solid 1080p/30fps with no frame drops). Another fantastic game from Xbox Game Studios this year. Looks like they're starting to get themselves into gear with their first party titles, with a fantastic port of Microsoft Flight Sim to the Series consoles and I know that Psychonauts 2 launched on PS4 as well but as Double Fine are a first party studio (and received additional funding from Microsoft to finish that game), Psychonauts 2 was a phenomenal experience. Look forward to seeing them continue this as solid first party output from Microsoft alongside that from Sony and Nintendo is only a good thing for the industry. But yeah, play Forza Horizon 5 when you're able to as its great.

Finally picked up Deathloop and as I've got Gamepass Ultimate, I ended up grabbing the Premium Add-on Bundle for Forza Horizon 5 to get the 4 days early access and other bits. Love the series so its an easy purchase for me as I'll be playing it for the next couple of years like I have FH3 and FH4 before it. Can't wait to play both.

The new album by The War on Drugs released today and I've listened to it through twice already and love it. This track, Harmonia's Dream instantly hit me and is so damned good. Also been listening to a lot of Chvrches latest album, Screen Violence over the last couple of weeks, and really like the album opener Asking For A Friend. They've just released a Director's Cut version of the album with 3 bonus tracks and I love Bitter End off of it. Love the horror aesthetic of the album they've conjured and especially love How Not To Drown with Robert Smith. Both of these have jumped in as two of my favourite albums of the year alongside Wolf Alice's Blue Weekend and Japanese Breakfast's Jubilee.

Glad to see the game coming to other platforms as its a great game. Played the game when it launched on Xbox earlier in the Summer and it was fantastic. Just a really well put together game that plays really well, looks great, has a nice soundtrack and has a good level of challenge (its very much a Zelda-like with some of that Soulsborne challenge and some Metroidvania elements for accessing previously inaccessible areas). Definitely a game worth your attention as its one of my favourite games of the year alongside Hitman 3 and The Forgotten City (the latter is a game I highly recommend as well).

Yep, thats the final hurdle that was holding me back from picking up now gone. I've got a stack of games to pick up in the coming months (still haven't picked up Deathloop yet and want to grab Tales of Arise and Life is Strange: True Colours as well as a bunch of indie games) but this will now jump near the top as I've been wanting to try it for ages but I've not been able to get long stints of time for gaming so this now becomes viable. Next time its on sale (I'd presume it'll be the Xmas/January sale) I'll look to grab it.

Microsoft have shown off the campaign in an overview: First time we're seeing the game after an extra year of work and you can definitely see the improvements visually. Gameplay looks superb, the grapple hook is going to be great to use and it essentially being a Halo sandbox means all types of shenanigans are going to happen. Shame campaign co-op isn't going to be there until a couple of months after launch. Still, impressed with whats shown and looking forward to playing on launch day.

Games, games and more games: All the indie/AA games. Keep me going for a couple of weeks. The Forgotten City is fantastic though. If anyone wants a well written time loop game that comes together really well (sorry 12 Minutes but not you) then I can't recommend The Forgotten City enough.