Ganepark32

It's the right call in the current climate. Is it a sad moment for gaming? Sure. Just going off of the back of what's happened with how cancellation of SXSW in Austin, there'll no doubt be lay offs as a result which is never a good things, and especially with the games industry as a whole and the ESA already having let staff go IIRC. Was it needed? I think so. There was so much mirring the event and the direction the current ESA was pushing it in. Last year's debacles surrounding Dr. Disrespect (while they took his badge away, the ESA should have pushed for criminal prosecution over him filming in a bathroom with kids in the background) and the leaking of thousands of journalists personal info was shocking was clearly a nail in the coffin for E3 in it's current guise. Geoff Keighley pulling out from doing the Coliseum and the slow movement away from the event from other publishers and developers and the increase in influencers has meant for a horrible experience on the show floor. I'm hoping they take the time to consider the route forward with the show if they aim to bring it back in 2021. I don't know what to suggest for improving the show other than letting the journalists have their days at the event prior to allowing general public entrance (and that also means withholding influencer attendance until admittance of the general public though that would never happen) like Gamescom has done for years and just generally not pissing off publishers, developers and journalists by trying to push certain agendas. Maybe make some part of it a digital interactive experience or something, I don't know. No doubt we'll see plenty of live streams and digital events over the week that was E3 and surrounding them. More space to present stuff is only a good thing for getting the word out but this invariably hurts indie developers. Hopefully someone like Kinda Funny jumps in again and puts on another digital indie showcase to help there. It certainly changes the timetable for getting info out about next gen. Microsoft will continue with their plans (I'm still adamant they'll launch this October/November even if there is only a small allocation of units) but this does alleviate some of the pressure on Sony for not being there and not getting info out.

It's been a long, long road since this was announced but today, the game is finally out and its reviewing well across the board. I've been excitedly waiting since it was announced to get my hands on it. I picked up my copy of the collector's edition this morning and I have to say that as someone who doesn't normally pick up collector's editions, what they've put together for this is really nice. For the £39.99 price tag, it's a good edition with a piano arrangement soundtrack CD, a digital copy of the entire soundtrack, a steel book which is black with the gold coloured logo for the game on the front and a really nice art book that's surprisingly thick (was expecting a smaller sized one so this was a pleasant surprise). Sure, they could've stuck some kind of figure/statue in there (that would have been awesome, especially if they made it with Ori, Ku, Gamu and Naru all together) but for the price, it's great and I'm glad I picked it up to support the devs. As for the game, I've played a little over 2 hours and I love it. They've clearly taken some inspiration from the likes of Hollow Knight here and there with the spirit badges you can get that give you additional abilities and with the starter weapon being a blade. The addition of weapons definitely makes combat much better this time around. I've been zipping about slashing with the blade, jumping to the side and using the bow to throw in some shots while my soul sentry acts like the spark from the first game and attacks enemies automatically for a short period of time. It feels great and it's a definite improvement over the first game. The platforming is still a strong component of the game. It still feels a little bit floaty to control but it feels somewhat tighter here compared to the first game and it very quickly starts throwing abilities to make your traversal much easier. I'd unlocked the dash and double jump within the first hour or so so it doesn't drag its feet about getting you going. I'm also liking the addition of NPCs in the form of animals in the locations that you can help with small side quests. Some of these feel right out of other metroidvania titles, like the map maker who disappears after you purchase the map of the area you're in. I'm looking forward to seeing how this is fleshed out later as I'm only just starting to meet more and more NPCs. As expected, the game looks phenomenal and the soundtrack is downright beautiful. That was to be expected as the first game was top notch in these departments as well. My only gripe is that with playing on an OG Xbox One, the backgrounds look quite low resolution, like playing handheld on the Switch low resolution. It's as if someone smeared vaseline on them in places and in others you can literally make out the pixels because of how low resolution they are. I'm wondering if this has been done in the day 1 patch to stabilise the performance issues that reviews had noted. Hopefully it'll get sorted as it, along with the remaining stutters when entering new areas or when going from the map screen to play. So yeah, first impressions are great from the 2 hours or so I've played. It's a sequel in all the right ways so far and I can't wait to play more. I'm glad loads will get to play it thanks to Game Pasa but I do hope it sells well enough as it and the original are two of the best games that Microsoft have given the go ahead to this generation.

Possibly the last game purchases for the month as I've more than enough to get on with for weeks/months now. Ended up going with Final Fantasy X/X-2 after consideration of thoughts in the General Switch thread so I'm looking forward to jumping in properly to my first proper Final Fantasy game. Yoshi is just something short to jump on in between along with Smash. And although I have Game Pass, I've been waiting for Ori for ages and want to support Moon Studios so was more than happy to shell out the money for the collector's edition. Can't wait to sit down and play it as it sounds like they've improved on it in every way from the original.

That's too good a deal to pass up on for Radiant Historia. Think I'll have to requisition my partner's 3DS and finally jump in. Funnily enough, I had been looking at a physical copy of it in CEX the other day but at £55, I did think it was a little steep even though in aware it's hard to find. Gives myself and many others a chance to finally play it at a reasonable price. Might also pick up both of the SMT games. I remember really wanting to play Strange Journey on the DS but never got round to importing it (it sat alongside the DS version of Radiant Historia and Legendary Starfy as games I never got round to getting despite importing plenty of titles in those days) so guess I'll grab that and Apocalypse and see when I get round to them at some point.

Thanks for the input everyone. As I say, as someone who has only had very fleeting experience with the mainline Final Fantasy games, and one of supposedly the weaker entries in 13, it's a bit daunting to know where would be a good place to jump in. I think I'll possibly look to try and grab X/X-2 rather than 12 if the combat system in the latter is kind of MMO like and because I'd rather have a more character focused narrative go start with. Shame that it's as expensive as it is for them on the Switch when they're less than half the price on the PS4 but I'm wanting something long form for the Switch given that there's not much in the horizon that I'm looking forward to (and because I've got the demo for FF7 Remake downloaded and ready to go on the PS4 so I may end up picking that up if I enjoy what I play there). I'll definitely give a look in to some of the older titles, such as 8 and 9, down the line though. See how I get on and go from there.

So looking for some thoughts and opinions. Looking for a longer form RPG to play on the Switch and I'm considering picking up Final Fantasy XII. How is it as a entry point per se for the series? I've played a bit of 13 (I stopped at some Bulbasaur like boss that was taking forever to take down) and the only other FF titles I've played are some of the spin offs, like the Crystal Chronicles games (as an aside, I'd love for them to take another stab at Crystal Bearer with a more traditional fighting system) so I've not got much experience with the mainline games and I was wondering if 12 is a good point in. For those that have played the Switch version, which I'm hoping some have, is the port decent enough for play in handheld exclusively (playing on a Lite)? I have been curious at times to jump in but I will admit that it's a little intimidating given the franchise and the reputation around it and just the sheer number of games. But I've for an itch for a decent length RPG and though there's the likes of Octopath Traveler or Fire Emblem, I wasn't massively taken with the demo for the former and I don't think I'm up for jumping between multiple character storylines and with the latter, I worry that the down time outside of the strategy battles would kill the game for me though it's something I'm definitely keen to try at some point. So yeah if anyone has any thoughts on Final Fantasy XII is like on the Switch, I'd love to hear them.

That's sooner than I was expecting. I was expecting late August/early September for the release to help bridge the gap to the PS5 launch and give it and The Last of Us Part 2 a bit more space. The game continues to look stunning. I do think I need to see a bit more gameplay to be fully set on it as I can't tell if it's going to be another open world game with bandit camps and such, just with a Samurai aesthetic. I hope it's not that and is more nuanced but it's a big departure for Sucker Punch so we'll see. Though who am I kidding, I'll be picking it up anyway as by and large Sony hasn't missed a beat with their first party games this gen (Days Gone might be the only one I'm not really taken on, though I've only played an hour or two of it so far). May and June sorted though. Looking forward to seeing out the PS4 with some amazing games. Though I'm still not expecting the PS5 till next March given recent global events.

Oh wow, that's a bit of a random game to port over. Not that I'm complaining, I remember playing the first one of these on the PSP back in the day during my brief run time with that platform (and it was one of the few games I put plenty of time into beside Star Wars Battlefront 2) and really enjoying it l, though I do remember it being hard. Curious to see how they price it, at the right price I'd possibly jump in again though I suspect with it being NIS America, it'll be full price and low in print.

Ordered this at the end of last week and received it this morning. Wasn't expecting the quality to be amazing when I saw that it was a Gildan t shirt but it's really good quality and soft as opposed to how Gildan t shirts used to be, which was scratchy. Ordered a large and surprised at how long it is, which is a bonus with me being tall. Also picked up: Great port, though they're definitely games that benefit from the bigger screen rather than being played handheld. Also bought a bunch of albums over the last week: Spook the Herd by Lanterns on the Lake Color Theory by Soccer Mommy Simulcast by Tycho Suddenly by Caribou The Main Thing by Real Estate Never Not Together by Nada Surf When We Stay Alive by Polica Have We Met by Destroyer Lots of new great music coming out at the moment. Think this should keep me going.

I've been watching AEW since Dynamite started after the missus was following the build up last year through the PPVs. I haven't watched wrestling since the early 2000s (I think Wrestlemania 20 is when I dropped out) but I've been loving what I've watched so far, to the point I'm even catching up on Dark when its put up weekly along with Being The Elite on YouTube. The inability of WWE to properly give their newer talent the run they deserved and generally poor writing across the board wore on me and I see and hear it's still the case now. Watching AEW Dynamite was like watching WCW again and it's been great. The talent they've brought together is great, such a good mix of genuine heel characters (like MJF and Pac) and great babyface ones too (like Orange Cassidy, Omega or the Young Bucks). Sure, some of the writing has been spotty at times, especially last year with things like the Nightmare Collective (thankfully that's been put to bed), but this year I feel they've really knocked it out of the park week on week and have definitely been building up their talent well, especially in the Men's division. The women's division does need some extra work as you do keep seeing a few too many jobber matches (pretty much everything Britt Baker has been doing recently as part of her story turn) and some matches where the two wrestlers maybe needed more time tow work together to make it a smoother match but that's stuff that'll be ironed out. Adding Statlander and Big Swole to the roster was a great move and building them up alongside the likes of Hikaru Shida (I've yet to see anyone who isnt a fan of hers, she's just great), Shanna and their current champion Nyla Rose can do wonders for that division. They just need to sort their stories and it would help elevate it (why they haven't run with the Nyla Rosa/Shanna feud that they did briefly on Dark I'll never know). The Men's and Tag divisions are pretty solid I'd say. They're building up the right people and pushing the right teams. I get some people want it to happen a bit quicker but then introducing the second show later this year will help a lot with fleshing out some of the more fringe teams and give them more lime light. Big fan of the current Page vs. The Elite thing they have going on, the reinvented Dark Order (hopefully we'll find out soon enough whether it really is Mayt Hardy as the Exalted One to put the whole everyone going on about it to bed) and the just generally love the mix of tag teams. One area where they definitely need to work on is getting new talent in and signed. They've let some great indie talent slip them by apparently because they thought those wrestlers would come speak to them (like Chris Bey and Marty Scurll) but with signings like Lance Archer (who I suspect will very quickly be put against Moxley as a feud) and Colt Cabana and rumours of Luke Harper coming across, they seem to be moving in the right direction. But yeah, I'm loving what they're doing so far. Revolution is the first PPV I've bought since Wrestlemania 20 and it was great. Can't wait for Blood and Guts (their version of Wargames) and to see where they take things.

Devolver Digital announced Sludge Life as coming to Switch and PC (via the Epic Game Store) soon. Another typically weird game from them but could be fun.

Couple of games to fill the gap in the current release schedule: Been wanting to replay the last 2 so managed to get them cheap enough. Was hesitant with both Days Gone and RE2 (I didn't like the demo for the latter) but they're not too bad from what I've played so far. There's also a pre-order in for Metro Redux on the Switch as well, as if I needed more to play. Edit: Also forgot I picked this up too: It's at least better put together than Darksiders 3 was at launch. Just a bit in the repetitive side.

A delay to at least one of the next gen consoles is something I've been thinking might slowly be becoming a reality. I suspect it would be Sony given how cagey they're being with regards to it and not feeling ready to unveil things. That and the recent talk that they're struggling to procure enough components and keep the cost of manufacturing down could play into them delaying it to early next year. Microsoft will definitely hit its launch this holiday, be that late October or early November. Even if they've got limited supply on launch, they'll still go for it. I could see Sony being a bit more level headed and thinking that if the cost is going to be too high and that they can't meet demand, amongst other things, they may delay until next February/March. That might even play into Sony's hands a bit. If they're struggling with cost, let Microsoft hit the market with the Series X at what will presumably be somewhere in the region of £449.99-£499.99 and see how that fairs. The extra months will help beef up production to give more units which will be a boon if Microsoft have limited stock for the first couple of months. They can then price accordingly. Likewise, we know Microsoft will have some bigger first party titles out of the gate. Halo, Forza (sadly Motorsport as I much prefer the Horizon games) and at least another game or two (possibly new IPs for these) and if Sony is worried they won't have that big game out of the gate from their first party teams and have a launch similar to the PS4, but they could have say Marvel's Spiderman ready for early 2021 as well as Horizon 2, then I could see them taking the delay on the chin as a lineup bolstered by titles like that would minimise any losses felt. It could happen and could be done to work in their favour, especially if they do a big PSX event in December this year to give everyone hands on before the holidays which might be enough of an impetus to stop people picking up a Series X, but I get a feeling they'll want to it the market at it around the same time as Microsoft. Itll be interesting to see nonetheless.

I've ended up pre-ordering Metro Redux. I wasn't going to as I have access to play them again on other consoles but just as with The Witcher 3, I just want to have them as I love the series and want to support the developers as it sounds like 4A Games have done a great job porting the games over themselves in house. I also wanted those pins that are part of the pre-order bonus though. They'll go alongside my Metro Exodus compass I got alongside that game. Digital Foundry did a tech analysis of the game and from that, it seems to be a great port so anyone who hasn't tried them but has been interested, you should definitely pick them up. Sure, they'll end up being more expensive on the Switch when they're frequently on sale on the other consoles (I've seen them individually for £3.99 many times and the Redux collection for just under £6) but these are definitely games worth playing if you loved that era of cinematic FPS titles that mixed in a fair amount of stealth and variability for how to approach situations. I also think the game aesthetically looks great. Can't wait to play through them again. Really need to also get round to the expansions for Exodus. Probably jump back into that after running through these as a complete play through of the series.

I'll be tuning in and hoping that they've evolved the formula a bit more than simply adding light crafting elements (which to be honest should have been in there from the start) as I've yet to see anything in any of the footage that they've shown that's piqued my interests yet. I do feel the standard formula is a bit tired now and does need a shake up but I don't see Nintendo changing it much. While they're not totally comparable, I think what was done in something like A Short Hike on PC was something that Animal Crossing should strive for. Give a wider, overarching story to what's happening while keeping the rest of the stuff here. A few more meaningful quests from the other animals too and you'd have something that would definitely draw me in. As it is, going through successive mortgages and houses while decorating them again and collecting the same fossils, fish and insects isn't enough for me. I'm hopeful there'll be some change and nice additions but currently I'm not intending to pick the game up unless the missus wants it.

Xcom 2 would be a cool get for the console, though the ever expanding save file issue and extended load times the more you play a save file could be atrocious if the port isn't handled well (both issues are still there on the other consoles I believe). With these two and the Bioshock collection reappearing, a Direct must be on the horizon. I'm hoping so as my Switch hasn't seen much use this year yet bar a handful of indie games and I'm not majorly fussed for Animal Crossing. That said, I may still pick up Metro Redux as the ports are supposedly well done by 4A Games so there's that. But yeah, I'd suspect a direct is brewing soon.

Some of what is being made is incredible. This one in particular has been doing the rounds on Twitter today and having jumped in to try it myself, in amazed at how they managed to put this together because it really is phenomenal. It really puts into perspective the lo-fi stuff I've been working on. Obviously, what I'm doing is completely different style and genre (it's pretty much going to be a movie short as I don't see a need to put interactive elements in there. Plus, I've already got a rough script written that needs a redraft so it was clear that a short was the best way forward) but the person who'd managed to put together that open world and all the components really is immensely talented. I'd love to know how they did the scenery, especially getting that speckled white and grey effect for the mountains as its something that's been bugging me for a while when I see other people's dreams as I can't figure out how to do landscape with that detail. Anyway, finished Art's Dream last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. That was worth waiting for as it really did ramp up towards the end and I loved the mix of stuff they had you do there. I loved the robot characters as they were so well done. Would love to see the puppets for those to tinker with, same with the scenes themselves to see how they did certain bigs. I believe they're being made available down the line? Hope so. Spent much of the day just tinkering in my scene. Testing out timelines for dialogue and camera cuts and then making some elements for the scene changes but trying to sculpt as much as possible to improve my skills there and minimise the graphics thermometer usage. Slowly getting there at least and wanting to try to do as much as possible myself to find where my weaknesses are with the tools. Whether I stick with it is a different matter as I'm weeks out for finishing but I'll see.

So this officially releases this coming week, on the 14th. Those who jumped in during Early Access will have access to the full release as of Tuesday 11th however. Very interested to jump back in and see what the single player entails. Also looking forward to getting to grips with dream sculpting again. I've dabbled a little bit over the last week but it's been months since I touched the game so it has been a little rough going. I also didn't have a cloud or backup of my save and so I've lost everything I'd been working on when I jumped into early access in April and May which kind of sucks. Still, its giving me a chance to work from scratch and see if I can work on completing an actual game or scene. I've got a general idea for something sci-fi based and have been doing a bit of writing for it as it would be more of a narrative thing than anything else (which means I don't have to worry about doing much extensive animation, though that's something I'm looking forward to messing with). But I'll see how it goes. Just curious to get back into the swing with it and to try out the stick based controls on the final version.

So last night I got my first taste of PC game streaming courtesy of Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud streaming service. It's now been made available to the wider public and you can sign up for free (though you'll only be able to play 1 hour sessions of games at a time) or can pick up a Founders package which is £4.99 a month for the year with 90 days free to start you off (the first paid month comes after the 90 days) and you can play with RTX on and can play for 6 hours per session. The service let's you play games you've bought on Steam or UPlay or the Epic Games Store, provided they're included in the database of titles available for the service which isn't the easiest to find out as you have to search for a game to see whether its playable or not though there is an archived page showing the list of games currently supported here. You can request games to be added I believe if they're not available and I presume they'll be adding things periodically as the months go on but it's not a bad selection of titles out of the gate. You can add games to your library on the PC app and then start playing. It'll ask you to log into your Steam, UPlay or Epic account to verify you've bought the game and then you're off and ready to go. Currently its available to play on PC, Mac and Android devices and so far from my experiences of it on PC and Android, it seems to run pretty well. I don't have the biggest library of games to go on and only have Hollow Knight and Owlboy but tested to former on my Samsung Galaxy S9 and it worked really well with a PS4 controller. There was an ever so slight delay with input but it was almost imperceptible. I then tried Destiny 2 seeing as its F2P and that ran well on my phone but the input delay was too high to be playable. Still, it looked great and there wasn't any noticeable frame drops from the short time I jumped into it on my phone. Going to test it out more on my potato of a PC but I suspect it'll run smoother in terms of minimising input delay. But yeah, very impressed with it especially as I only have a 50mbps fibre connection (50 down and about 5 up) so not amazing but it ran really well. Very much tempted to try out a few others things on Steam that I've been eyeing up, like Disco Elysium, but its promising so far and I'm looking forward to testing it out a bit more before deciding whether to commit to it or not especially as I don't have a PC good enough for gaming.

It's crazy that this flew by all of its original Kickstarter goals within the first 2 to 3 hours. It's now sitting at over $1 million and still growing which is insane. How it'll translate beyond the Kickstarter to sales will be interesting as I suspect that a lot of the people who would be interested in buying will be backing it already and with how niche the title is, it's one of those things that isn't going to garner a huge amount of attention beyond the good will that being a Platinum title remastered post Nier Automata will bring. Unless a publishing partner jumps in to handle a wider release of the physical side of things (which I'm dubious about but I suspect they've spoken at length with Iga and his experience with Bloodstained and have been put in touch with the likes of 505 Games for potential publishing relations), the Kickstarter may be the only way to get physical as I can see them pushing the digital release more because it'll simply cost less for them to do that. As I said, they may end up working with the likes of 505 Games on a wider release slate for the game but we'll see. I'm curious what the rest of their announcements will be. This was the first of 4 they have coming. I'd imagine that 2 of the others will be Babylon's Fall and Bayonetta 3 respectively (whether they tie Bayonetta 3 into being the third announcement or not is to be seen but I imagine they might). People are wondering whether, because of the font being used for their 4 announcements, they might be setting up to announce another game in the Nier/Drakengard series. Given the performance of Nier Automata, I would be shocked if Square Enix didn't want to follow that up with Yoko Taro and Platinum but again, that's just what people are hoping it'll be. Anyway, cool to see it doing well with the Kickstarter. Interesting that Nintendo were ok with letting them bring it to other platforms, seeing as they own part of the licence (which it turns out is the same deal with Astral Chain, Nintendo owns 50% of that IP), though I doubt they'll be kicking themselves for not funding the port just yet as backer numbers are one thing, sales will be the big question mark on release.

I tried Anthem back in December thinking that given that it had been 10 months, things would have improved but like you, I was appalled at the amount of times I disconnected from players leaving during missions to just generally not being able to log in. It's a shocking state of affairs for the game, especially one from Bioware of all developers (regardless of the fact that the quality of their games has dropped). At this point, I genuinely don't believe they've got it in themselves to sort the game out, with Bioware Austin being the only team working on it (and they're still plugging away with Star Wars The Old Republic and the small dedicated player base there) and the main team at Bioware working on Dragon Age 4 (which is itself going through troubles with overhauls too). The execution was off from the get go and not having an idea of what the product would be till the E3 before launch (a whole 8 months) was a big enough warning sign for me to jump out after the beta. I liked the flying and the gameplay was decent enough but everything else just felt hollow and didn't come together at all. There was rumblings that EA was hoping to soft reboot the game but given it's a year on from release almost and the road map came and went without much of the content, that updates have been few and far between and that even EA seem to be quiet in the game as a whole, I think it'll be taken offline and given the bullet sooner rather than later. We may see something at EA Play prior to E3 but I just don't see how they can turn it around as there was just so many glaring issues beyond connectivity issues (writing, for example, was one of the highlights of a Bioware game previously but in Anthem it was good awful). Anyway, I finished up a play through of A Short Hike on PC the other day and absolutely loved every second of it. It was already in my GOTY list but sitting down and playing more of it just made me appreciate more how much a smaller, simple game like that is needed on the industry. I loved the visual style, the music is beautiful and the freedom to just go and do whatever you please was a big factor in how good the game was. The cast of characters as well were great and the story was really touching. Just a brilliant little game that while short, has surprising depth with numerous side quests and just hiking round the island to discover things. I can't recommend it enough, especially at such a low price (£5.79 on Steam and about the same on Itch.io, where the dev gets a better cut of the revenue and I believe you also get a steam key as well). I'm curious of it'll come to consoles, particularly the Switch, as I think it'd do really well on the platform. We'll see. But yeah, even if you've got a potato of a PC like me, give it a go. It's the game I wish Animal Crossing was, more meaningful and far more engaging with the focus on single player rather than social experience. Also currently working through Journey to the Savage Planet and enjoying it. Very reminiscent of Metroid Prime in terms of how it plays. Could perhaps do with a map for keeping track of where I'm heading but by and large, it's a more laidback Metroid Prime and pretty good so far. I'm also playing through Lego Harry Potter Collection with the missus and we've finished up Years 1 and 2. I'm not a massive fan of either Harry Potter or the Lego games and at times this has been a slog because of how buggy the game is on the PS4 but it's been fun having some coop time with her as we tend to sit playing different things.

Just a heads up on a newer podcast for those who may be interested. Play, Watch, Listen is a monthly podcast released on the last Friday of each month chaired by Alanah Pearce (IGN, Funhaus) with Troy Baker (Voice Actor, The Last of Us, Uncharted), Austin Wintory (Composer, Journey, Abzu, Banner Saga) and Mike Bithell (Game Director, Bithell Games, Thomas Was Alone, Volume, John Wick Hex) where they talk about all manner of games and topics within the medium while bringing in their experience from their respective fields within the games industry. They've only put out 3 episodes but I've been really enjoying the style of podcast they've been doing. It's a more laidback conversation that definitely jumps about between different mediums and topics (last month they talked about the impact of The Game Awards and this month they've talked about game delays amongst other things) but is insightful for those who want to have that different perspective on the industry. Thought it might be interesting for people wanting to hear about different sides of the industry. Alanah put the video of the podcast up on her YouTube page and it's available as a podcast on Spotify and the like for audio listeners. There's little teething issues but yeah, I've been enjoying it a lot for the more casual chat and because I've always been interested in the stuff that consumers don't see as often with regards to the games industry. This month's one has even given me this idea to look into the psychology of how consumers react to delays which is something I may work into a write up or article or something. So recommended by me anyway. I've linked the playlist on YouTube below.

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales has shadow dropped on the Switch this morning. It's available now for £16.99. If anyone enjoyed gwent or likes a good card based game, definitely pick it up as it's great. Tempted myself for on the go play.

It's been a slow start to the year in terms of completing games, or even playing them to be honest. I've felt a little disconnected from things and have wanted to be focusing on other things (started drawing again and getting back into a basic exercise routine as examples) but this last week I've managed to put two games to bed. First up, I picked up the physical version of A Hat in Time on Switch and promptly flew through that, having played it all before on the PS4. I has worries performance would be bad going by what impressions were saying about the port but it seems the updates and patches since release have smoothed things out by and large. There's still frame rate dips when there's a lot going on on screen, such as with boss battles, or when you're in some of the more open areas like Mafia Town where there can be a lot happening. Yet it was never bad enough to stop me playing. So I ran through collecting time pieces quick enough and finishing the main game and turned to the DLC to give that a go as the Switch version is the only console version where you can play the DLC. Annoyingly though, if you buy the physical as I did, you only get access to the Seal the Deal DLC and not the second piece of content meaning you have to purchase Nyazuka Metro separately on top of the cartridge which takes it well and above the price to get the game and all DLC digitally on the eShop. A but disgusted with that to be honest but it was never a game I was going to hold on to having played it already and once I'm done with the last couple of time pieces, the game will most likely be sold on. Still, the DLC has been good so far. Nyakuza Metro in particular has been great. A large open level with multiple time pieces that you can work towards, with it's own story and no need to go back to the hub after each time piece has been collected. It's well designed and plays well so I'm glad I'm finally getting a chance to play the DLC even if I feel somewhat burned by the pricing of going physical with the game. A great game to start with and even more content just means more greatness. Secondly, I started and finished Stories Untold the other day and really enjoyed it. Didn't really know what to expect going in but had generally heard good things about it narratively and came away very impressed with where it went story wise and how everything is slowly peeled back. I went in expected a horror story but it flipped and went a completely different way with the events tying all 4 of the vignettes together and it was great. I loved how different each of them was, from the text based adventure of the first part of the game to running experiments on a specimen in a test chamber in the second bit to decoding radio messages in the third piece. And the way the fourth and final part brings it all together, I thought it handled it and the subject matter really well and really framed everything so well. I'd definitely recommend giving it a go if you're into story heavy games and like things that ere on the side of weird. Has made me want to finally get on with playing their second title, Observation, on the PS4 as I've had it sitting for ages and haven't gotten round to it. Looks like I'll be doing that soon enough. So two down to start the year off. Going for a far more casual approach to things this year to incorporate other things back into my life and just generally branch out (I'll soon be picking up the pen again to write about games and other things as an example) and look after myself a bit more. Beyond those two, I've started playing Lego Harry Potter Collection with the missus on the PS4 in coop as we've not played anything coop together since Rocket League. I'm not a big Harry Potter fan but it's been fun and chaotic so far. I've also started Indivisible on the Xbox One as it was added to Game Pass recently. Really enjoying what I've played so far, not what I expected as I thought it was supposed to be a fighting game but the metroidvania/active combat battles mixture is suiting my tastes nicely so looking forward to playing more. Also set to pick up both Journey to the Savage Planet and Kentucky Route Zero on the PS4 and Switch respectively tomorrow so plenty more to keep me going in amongst all the other bits and pieces.

Knights and Bikes has been announced as coming to the Switch on Feb. 6th. Never got round to playing it on the PS4 but I've generally heard good things about it.