Ronnie

Just watched the Gamexplain review, positive enough, but probably not quite enough for me to pick it up, much as I'd like to support Ubisoft. The point he was making is that this isn't a Starfox game, but the Starfox inclusion works well.

Amazing. Anywaaay, things like this just reinforce my decision not to renew PS+. Playstation’s whole infrastructure needs a reboot and I imagine they know it. For now I’ve changed my privacy settings so that only friends can message, suggest people do the same. Bizarre how a string of smiley faces can cause that much chaos.

PSN setting the standard once again...

2018 so far for me: Celeste: Fantastic, a game that could have been frustrating was made near perfect thanks to the quick respawns. Amazing soundtrack and lovely visuals for the most part. Nice storyline. 5/5 Owlboy: Disappointing. Pixel art was outstanding, but that's pretty much it. Ho hum gameplay. 2/5 Shadow of the Collossus: My first time playing this and had a great time. Felt a little dated in the fact that there wasn't much else to do but still brilliant and very cinematic. 4/5 Darkest Dungeon: Been playing this for a long time but finally finished it this year, on Switch. It's in my Top 5 of all time, just fantastic. 5/5 Kirby Star Allies: Serious case of buyer's regret getting this, I'm not sure what I was thinking. Didn't enjoy it at all, and I've liked the 3DS games in the past. Felt very very cheap and lazy. 1/5 Rise of the Tomb Raider: Loved it, maybe not quite as much as the first one as the locations were a bit forgettable here, but still had a great time. 4/5 Blossom Tales: Really impressed with this and how it nails that ALTTP feel. Highly recommended, a cute, fun, adventure game with lovely visuals. 3/5 God of War: One of the most impressive games I've ever played. Far from perfect and it really lost it's way towards the end for me personally but otherwise, probably my GOTY so far. 5/5 Flood Kids: Another case of buyer's regret but the visuals are cool so there's that. 1/5 Oxenfree: Enjoyed it, enough to buy their next game. Again, nice visuals. 2/5 Old Man's Journey: Chill game, beautiful to look at. Gameplay a bit limited but overall enjoyed it a lot. 3/5 Detroit Become Human: Loved it, especially Conor and Kara chapters. Marcus' ones weren't particularly fun at all, but overall I had a great time 5/5 Yoku's Island Express: Could have been a Nintendo game it was so bursting with charm. Great idea executed pretty much perfectly. 3/5 Horizon Zero Dawn: Loved the combat. Hated the openworld. I just couldn't be bothered to take in the sights or explore much. But apart from that, a fantastic game and I'm looking forward to the sequel. 5/5 Hollow Knight: A really special game, probably in second place for my GOTY but up there with my favourites ever. World building, combat, visuals, tone, gameplay all absolutely brilliant. 5/5 Currently playing: Octopath Traveller: I might have to give up on this as I do with most JRPGs, had a great time with it but the grind started to get to me a bit. Spider-Man: A perfectly good game but nothing more IMO. I really don't see what all the fuss is about. Really desperate to just finish it and move on to something else. Mega Man 11: I'm enjoying it but I find the way you can cheat to victory by buying loads of supplies a little sad and the game seems to be balanced so that you have to do that.

Sorry to bump this out of the blue with no news, but I've finally watched the gameplay reveal and I'm 100% in, looks great, love how all the systems interact. Made my peace with the fact that it's first person, the shooting often feels like a cover-based third person game tbh, which makes it all more appealing to me. As for a release date, they do seem to be ramping up with something new each month so it wouldn't surprise me to see a release date announcement soon (which will probably then be delayed as per the video game industry rules)

Indie Dev Says Switch Is Easiest Console To Work With, Nintendo "Has Done A Complete 180"

They're charging to change a username? Weird how it's only guaranteed with games after April 2018.

Just watched the pilot episode of Resistance through... means... Anywho, I actually really, really enjoyed it! I thought it was surprisingly good fun. The cel shaded visuals are actually quite stunning at times, there's decent music, great sound effects, fun/interesting characters, and frankly anything with BB-8 in it is instantly a win, smart move on their part to shoehorn him in. I thought the setting was really cool, something a bit different to anything we've seen before in Star Wars. Humour-wise I laughed out loud a few times, they definitely nailed that part. They strike a good balance between making it something both kids and adults can enjoy. Oscar Isaac was good but strangely muted, like he was half asleep when delivering his lines. Nice to have another familiar face though. It's also nice to have a bit of back story for Force Awakens. I enjoyed seeing the shiny New Republic X-Wings, even if their design was ugly af lol. As for the other ships, at first I really didn't like the racing ones from the trailers but they've definitely grown on me, especially Kaz's ship. So many litle Star Wars touches everywhere. One final point, forget the Porgs, the Gorgs here are probably the cutest thing I've seen in a while. Nothing ground-breaking or amazing, but a pleasant watch. I think it's on Disney XD this weekend, are you tuning in @Julius Caesar ?

Ugh, they're already shoehorning in more Georgiou. I really can't stand it when Yeoh plays an evil character, it just comes off as cringeworthy. And her delivery of that line just sounds off. Rest looks decent enough. But again the whole Saru/Burnham "family" angle, holding hands etc seems like it's a few seasons too soon. By the end of season 7 the TNG crew were a family. After a year? Not so much. And yeah I know they served on the Shenzhou together, but still.

Very cool detail. It's about time AAA games stopped giving you a dotted line to exactly where you need to go.

If anyone hasn't played this on mobile, it's coming to console for the first time. Brilliantly eerie and well animated game, and only about 5 or 6 quid on the eShop I believe

I didn't forget.

It'll be the new Vita, just with you know, actual first party support, and more than 12 people owning one. I'm comparing indie games in general. New console releases like Hollow Knight, Steamworld Dig 2, GRIS (check out the trailer, looks amazing and think you might like it), The Messenger, and the older stuff being ported like Stardew, Guacamelee 2 etc. I think the only reason we're getting some of the newer games late is because development on those started for PS4 before the Switch took off, and that'll soon be a thing of the past. It also helps when a developer can have two big stories in the news, one for their first release, then their release on Switch.

I like to have a list of games I'm keen to play in future. Each month the list of indies on PS4 gets smaller and the one for Switch gets bigger.

Love things like that. It's what makes Nintendo games special imo, the polish and attention to detail.

I'd argue it's really only the exclusives that Playstation has over Xbox this generation. Now granted, that's a pretty big deal and the majority reason why it's selling much better but Xbox is ahead in a lot of other ways and now that it looks like they might have sorted exclusive games for next gen. Things like backwards compatibility, Game Pass being brilliant and great value for money, Games with Gold over PS+, the Xbox One controller being fantastic and the DS4 having the battery life of a Fisher Price toy, the whole design lab where you can make your own controllers, the hardware design, The X being an actual 4K console, the Elite controller, their E3 conferences the last couple of years, the whole cross play thing with Fortnite and Minecraft, being able to change your username etc. Xbox has gotten a lot right this year, far more than Playstation, it's just that they're lacking in the (by far) most important part!

I thought that was just Mandalorian armour. I've read reports the lead could be some girl from the Rebels series (her name escapes me as I haven't watched it). Something to do with Filoni having a hand in creating her in that show.

Crazy. Nintendo get grief for friend codes but at least you can change your Switch online name whenever you want.

Anyone else turned off at just how much content there seems to be in this game (as well as apparently in Origins). I’d love to play another AC but the thought of spending 50+ hours at least is a bit scary. I wish Ubisoft would stop going bigger with each release. I’ll probably still get it as reviews are really positive but I’m more daunted than excited!

If the last few years has shown anything it's that they like to constantly update games over time to get people coming back to them. Especially multiplayer ones, so maybe more are coming. But yeah a couple more at release would have been good.

It does seem a low number, even with all the other modes. I'm far from a game dev, but it seems like creating more boards wouldn't be the biggest time investment for a game like this. Far easier than say creating 80 new mini games you'd have thought! But yeah I can see them updating it with free DLC over the course of the next year. At least the core gameplay is a return to form. They were smart to not call it Mario Party 11

I can't get over the poor audio design of this game. The level themes are generic and forgettable and it doesn't use any recognisable sound effects from MM1-6/9-10. What a big missed opportunity.

As hinted not so subtlely on their Twitter account a few weeks ago... Chasm being released on Switch in one week. Up for pre-order atm.

The Traitor Lord was easily in my top 3 more challenging bosses, so you're not the only one. Him and the Watcher Knights made me want to throw my controller through the tv. Setting a warp point to just before the boss room helps though. True ending boss isn't as hard as I first thought tbh, once you fully upgrade your Nail and maybe using the quick strike (or whatever it's called) charm. Oh and use Abyss shriek plenty lol. The patterns aren't actually that tough to dodge after some practise, but one screw up tends to chain react and lead to plenty more. Also there's a fair amount of healing windows between his attacks if you look for them, so I wouldn't recommend those blue heart charms that stop you healing. As for length of the game, I think most people fully completed it in about 50 hours which I think is a good time for a Metroidvania, but you can easily skip half of the content and finish it in half the time at most. Once you've finished the game, can I recommend this youtube page if you're interested. Loads of quality Hollow Knight content in terms of lore and storyline. It made me appreciate the game even more. https://www.youtube.com/user/rustymolboxer