Mandalore

It's going to be a hard sell on day 1 after the full price beta test they shoved out for Street Fighter 5.

I think I'm at the point where I enter the Forbidden West now, been slowly going around the area trying to do all the optional quests. Noticed a few things which are inaccessible and presumably require an item/skill picked up later in the game. What skill trees is everyone levelling up so far? I've been putting all my points into machine master so far, hoping it pays off when I can override more machines. One think I can't help but do is compare the world design and stealth mechanics to the previous game I played, Pokémon Legends. Forbidden West is just leagues ahead in every regard.

Played the beginning so far which is essentially the tutorial. It took some getting used to the controls again. It goes over a very brief summary of Zero Dawn, but I'm glad I read this story recap before playing. The game looks and runs great, looking forward to getting stuck into the story.

One thing I wasn't such a fan of...

Wow I was surprised how great that was. I haven't bothered watching The Old Republic cinematics since the original one had dual of fates playing over it. Having dual of fates playing on something that was set 1000s of years before Republic era just spoiled it for me. The musical themes are so specific to movies/characters of that time, it felt really out of place just shoehorning it in like that. Thankfully the 6 months or so of The Old Republic I played all had an original and much more fitting soundtrack.

I resubscribed to Disney+ to catch up on Boba Fett and a few Marvel series. Really enjoyed Boba Fett overall, this and Mandalorian are by far my favourite Star Wars things since Disney took over. I noticed an article on the BBC about people complaining that Disney had changed Fett's character too much. I don't really get it, he didn't exactly have much character development in the movies? A similar thing happened in Karen Traviss's Legacy of the Force books, she got some really unpleasant online abuse for it. Main Star Wars stuff I'm looking forward to now is the Obi-Wan series and the Knights of the Old Republic remake.

PushSquare seem to think it is.

Wales. Change of plans. Used my remaining GAME credit to buy a £25 PSN top up card and then pre ordered the digital PS4 version last night. Upgraded to PS5 for free and started downloading this morning.

An extremely rare red weather warning tomorrow is going to prevent me from picking up my pre order. I guess I'll just try finishing off the Pokédex in Pokémon Legends in the meantime. If I play that game enough, Horizon will look even more amazing when I eventually start it.

I've been trying to complete all of the Balloon Races, as far as I can tell there are just 3 unless I'm missing some. The Alabaster Icelands was by far the most challenging, mainly because you have to wrestle with the camera in some places. Just in case it's considered a spoiler:

I got to the end credits earlier. Overall it was alright, but in many regards it felt as stuck in the past as the main series games. Having to improve the star ranking to progress just felt like a grind and the item bag constantly filling up made the game feel like a chore. It had its moments though. In places it looked really great, the new Pokémon were nice and they did a good job with the music.

No chance of Bungie ever returning to Halo then. How big is Bungie compared to companies like Sega and Square Enix? Is it within Sony's budget to gobble up them too?

Same, I was surprised by the final evolution. It's like it just couldn't face anymore of the grind.

Got the N64 poster set, it's the first Club Nintendo thing I've redeemed/bought in years. I'll try and keep my platinum coins topped up in the off chance that they do another set with F-Zero X.

They must've really wanted Geometry Wars back.

It didn't feel like much happened all year, but there were a couple of really good things. I finished my Master's degree with a Distinction and got offered a PhD place which I'm now doing. It was significantly better than 2020 for me, that was already a wretched year in work even before the pandemic hit.

Those taxis probably had loads of people in and out of them all day. An infected door handle, seat, seatbelt etc seems like a likely way of catching it.

I finished it a couple of days ago. I enjoyed it overall, especially the bits where you go after the Visionaries. I don't think I'll be too bothered if there is a Xbox exclusive sequel though. One thing to watch out for is an extremely frustrating bug which locks you into the menu. I encountered it a few times, the circle button becomes disabled and you are just stuck there until you restart the game. It happened when I had taken out all the Visionaries and was on the last bit. Not quite sure what happened there.

I think they're the ones who ended up with the Extreme-G licence (and did literally nothing with it). Might be the possibility of XG1 and XG2 on Switch online at some point?

Got this in the Black Friday sale. It takes a while to get into, but it's a lot of fun once you've done a few loops. It reminds me of Bioshock, but with a Majora's Mask like time loop.

It almost seems like some sort of placebo-like effect, people expect side effects so they get side effects. Other than a sore arm, I was fine day after my booster jab. The worst thing was the anxiety before getting jabbed.

Does this game have an original soundtrack or is it all licenced stuff? I was considering getting it for my next PS5 game, but licenced soundtracks are such a turnoff for me.

Microsoft have created a digital museum for the 20th anniversary. It's interesting wondering around your own profile in it. Apparently I really liked Mass Effect, and I mysteriously stopped playing Xbox consoles in 2014.

It's hard not to be cynical about Ubisoft's modern reputation for generic open world games when you seen news like this.

I've been playing it for a few days, enjoyed what I've seen of it so far. I like how the game is more walking focused than Pokémon Go. The level up system is directly related to the amount of steps you walk and it's easy to start planting flowers at the beginning of the walk and then just put your phone away and not be constantly distracted by it.