Ronnie

You and I must have watched it at the exact same time because I finished it half an hour ago as well. I thought it was absolutely fantastic. If their job was to lure you in with this brand new world and then leave you wanting more it certainly accomplished that. I was gutted when the end credits rolled. The music was top notch (and very different to what we're used to in the saga films, but obviously much more fitting to the style of show and the setting). As has become the norm with Disney Star Wars, cinematography was brilliant, and visually the show is just beautiful. There managed to be even less CGI than I was expecting tbh, everything felt so real and grounded, though I will agree some CG looked rough, the early speeder shots looked a little off somehow. Great opening act though. I'm glad they gave a bit of personality to the Mando, I was worried they might try and make him a bit too cool and not say much but I'm glad they're giving Pedro Pascal plenty to work with. Obviously lots of fan service and nods only hardcore fans will notice but I'm pleased it wasn't OTT. I was expecting there to be some kind of callback every 10 seconds but it was pretty restrained overall. Can't wait for Chapter 2, what a brilliant start...

Is there a different ending if you go through the game without dying? I've only died once so far and even then I had a golden bone, so I'm not sure if that counts. Finished level 7 last night, great fun

Not too bothered about TMs, HMs and GTS, as long as TX's and W52-Moves are still in the game, I'm happy.

Sterling didn't like BOTW or RDR2 either so I can't say I'm surprised he didn't like Death Stranding

Half the IGN editorial staff seem obsessed with Pokemon, so no hate coming from there at least. I'm sure it'll get in the 8/10 range.

Started re-watching every main Star Wars film in the build up to 9. I considered skipping the prequels but thought I may as well do this properly. Some random thoughts... The Phantom Menace: The best prequel film, at least in my opinion. Certainly the prequel that feels most like a Star Wars film. 2 and 3 aren't adventure films like Star Wars is supposed to be, Phantom Menace is. That said, it suffers from the same major flaws as the other prequels, a terrible script, poor characters (Qui-Gon and Maul apart), and a pretty lame foundation storyline, which is a shame because pacing-wise it's pretty good, if way too expository. Seriously, they cut to holograms (usually Palpatine) explaining the situation every ten minutes about a dozen times. But yeah, overall I don't mind it too much. Flawed from the beginning but enjoyable enough. 5/10 Small things I noticed: - Scenes are way, way shorter than the sequel trilogy. Some will last no more than twenty seconds. Weird. - Prosthetics were surprisingly poor in places. Maybe I'm spoiled by the sequels but the Trade Federation especially looked TERRIBLE. - A refreshing lack of CG. Don't get me wrong, there was tons, but not so much it makes your eyes bleed like in 2 and 3. - I'd always remembered the kid that plays Anakin here as being pretty good and not too annoying... I was wrong. - The pod-race setpiece is the best thing about the prequels (apart from the announcer) - Samuel L Jackson in Star Wars. Just, no. - I like how Amidala's servant (in disguise) sent the Queen to clean up Artoo. lol. - Liam Neeson carries most of the film tbh, he was pretty good.

Maybe the quality isn't translating but from what I've seen I think Read Dead 2 looks far more impressive. Now that was a jaw-dropping stunning game, especially when you throw in it having actual towns and tons of NPCs/animals everywhere. Death Stranding just looks muddy to me like that era during the PS3/360 era where a lot of big games had that grey/brown brown look to it. Edit: case in point, the below screenshots. I'd say those look the opposite of good personally

You'll enjoy the next floor I think, that was a standout to me so far, even though I've enjoyed most of them so far.

If publishers can't run a tighter ship then it'd help if outlets stopped reporting on leaks.

The next month and a half are going to be huge for Star Wars. A fantastic looking tv show, Episode 9, Fallen Order looking great. Then you have smaller things like Resistance wrapping up, a new Vader Immortal chapter and the apparently excellent IX prequel novel Resistance Reborn. What a time to be a Star Wars fan! Though I do sort of wish Fallen Order was a Jan/Feb game just to space things out a bit!

The game is quite similar to BOTW in that it gives you all your abilities early on and you have everything you need for all the puzzles in the rest of the game. (At least that’s the impression I get so far, 3 or so floors in)

Glad to hear it. Wish leakers would just f off

This game is f-ing fantastic. That is all.

At this point I think they've shown off the game enough, surely

Brilliant video, and one of the longest he's ever done. Everything that utter masterpiece of a game deserves, I can't imagine another Metroidvania topping it for me.

Oh ok I'll be collecting as much as possible then, thanks!

Hard to break out when your scrum is toast from minute 1, annoying how there were no warning signs before the Final, it was solid all tournament.

Be great to see them tackle an adventure game, really looking forward to this

Started this last night, put in an hour and a bit. Loving it. The animations and cutscenes are fantastic. You can't go 10 seconds without smiling and chuckling. Usual Charm set to a million like most Nintendo games. My only real gripe is having heard from reviews that money isn't particularly useful so I don't get too excited collecting all the cash, as I'm not sure I'll ever use it. Maybe they could have what Odyssey did and have it unlock costumes for Luigi to wear or something.

Heartbroken. The scrum and nervous play early on killed us. Those tries at the end would never have happened if we weren’t chasing the game. Losing Sinckler after 1 minute was an absolute disaster but you could tell the occasion got to the players.

You can easily finish it in 30 hours, plenty of reviews said as much. Just whether you want to do the copy and pasted sidequests.

It strikes me as bit of a PR stunt tbh "We were so bored, we aren't even going to review it". They should have just finished it though yeah, but it's probably just them making the point. That said multiple reviews have said the game doesn't respect the player's time, so it's probably an extreme case.

I thought so too until they clarified they'd still be doing a write-up on it, just without a score at the end. Sony probably don't mind, it means one less 3 or 4/10 dragging their Metacritic down. I meant more things like pressing LT and RT to keep your balance and your cargo on your back without dropping everything and having to pick it up, or rocking the baby to keep him quiet, picking up all your scattered gear after a big battle, the long traversal and 4 cutscenes that play every time you want to fast travel etc... I played a little when it was on PS+ but switched it off after an hour never to return. I don't really get the hype around him but I'm sure he has his fans for a reason.

Apparently EDGE got so bored playing it they refused to finish it. Sony stipulated you had to finish the game to publish a review so they won’t be publishing one. They’ll do a preview without a final score. I’m a little surprised for someone who didn’t like BOTW you’re so keen on this @drahkon. I’m getting some Zelda vibes from the traversal-heavy empty-ish openworld (just with seemingly lots of pointless busywork, annoying controls and none of the fun of the shrines and dungeons). I guess there’s obviously much more emphasis on a storyline which is one big difference. For all the praise Kojima is getting for trying something different it sounds to me like gameplay was an afterthought here. Seems more like a vanity project than a game to me. at least based on what I’ve read/watched.

The IGN review is excellent. And was called out as the best video review they've ever done by their editor. But they're going to get a lot of heat for the score. I applaud them for looking beyond the hype and style over substance that this game seems to reek of. No wonder they weren't telling people what the game is, if a series of fetch quests is what the game amounts to.