Ronnie

Mass Effect Legendary Edition probably my pick of this year's releases. I was a bit down for a couple of days after I had finished 3, now that it was all over. An amazing experience. Honourary mentions to Metroid Dread and Immortals Fenyx Rising, both fantastic games. Didn't get around to playing TOEM: A Photo Adventure and Death's Door, but will get on that soon!

Put 2-3 hours into this, really enjoying it. It's crazy how such a polished, beautiful game was made by such a small team. Really loving the exploration and the combat is pretty fun too.

I feel your pain. I felt like putting my head through a wall multiple times in Hollow Knight, but you get better every time you face these bosses and it feels amazing to put a run together where you know his every move and can deal with every attack.

I enjoyed the EMMI sequences a lot, but I didn't really take the stealth approach too often, and just tried to outpace them (where possible!). By the end of the game I was parrying about 50% of the time if caught, if not more.

Just watched Chapter 1 too, Loved it. Very much left me wanting more though, a much more subdued opening than I was expecting but I don't think that's a bad thing. Seeing where Fett came from since ROTJ is pretty much necessary for the show to succeed. My biggest worry going into this show was that it would take itself too seriously and that Fett and Fennec would have almost zero personality to speak of. Thankfully that wasn't the case pretty early on with Fett's "Did you catch any of that?" line and a few others dotted around. I've never been the biggest fan of Fennec but she seemed a tad more laid back here so hopefully her character will continue to grow on me. My only slight concern is that the show seems to be positioning itself as a lot less episodic than Mando, which I'm sure some people will prefer but personally I liked the old school adventure of the week type deal we've gotten used to in the other show. Then again I need to remember to stop letting expectation cloud my judgement and stop me from enjoying Star Wars to the full. It's a sentiment I think a lot of fans should pay attention to, the fandom would be a much happier place. Anyway, overall great stuff, I groaned when the end credits appeared, instantly wanting to see more. God it feels good to have live action Star Wars again. It feels like years since Mando season 2, and all it's been is 12 months.

The Disney+ MCU shows hadn't really done it for me before now, but I thought Hawkeye was really fantastic. Finally an MCU season finale that doesn't disappoint! The overall storyline was pretty meaningless and forgettable, but everything else was great. Love the characters.

Yeah from what I've read it sounds like they got this almost spot on! Microsoft Games Studios on fire lately.

Every time I try not to get my hopes up for the sequel I remember that by the time it releases it will have been nearly SIX YEARS since BOTW. I know they spent time on DLC and development on BOTW2 might not have happened as soon as the previous game finished, but that seems like an awfully long time. Unless it ran into trouble and they restarted development half way through or something. Love that. I can easily see Schreier being like that.

To be fair this isn't some official statement Nintendo put out, it's behind the scenes conversations he's had. Feels a bit more real than the stock PR answer from a big company. But yeah, who knows really. It's good to hear Nintendo seem confident but we'll see. And yeah, I tend to ignore Schreier at all costs haha

Peer Schneider at IGN (who's worth listening to) suggesting that BOTW2 is on track for next year and that Nintendo are excited about their 2022 in general. Obviously take it with a grain of salt, things can change etc, but hopefully accurate. https://www.nintendoenthusiast.com/breath-of-the-wild-2-on-track-2022-botw2-nintendo-very-good-year/

Watched the first three episodes of Hawkeye yesterday, really good fun, enjoyed them a lot, though I suspect I'll forget about them very quickly. This one seems the most like a corporatey "product" than actually made with love. Still, Kate Bishop is loads of fun to watch, she's great. Love her chemistry with Clint. Hopefully this show sticks the landing with the ending after Wandavision and especially Loki fumbled it badly, imo.

The only thing I thought was missing from GOW were more NPCs. The world was deserted save for literally like 4 or 5 people. I know there was a story reason for it but yeah, the only negative on an otherwise brilliant game. That’s the main thing for me too. Hopefully there’s plenty of new areas to explore. It’s what held back A Link Between Worlds for me as being an absolute classic, the re-used overworld. I think the BOTW team know they have a hell of a game to live up to and they’ll do it justice. Hopefully.

Nintendo wise, that we know of... Breath of the Wild 2 - duh Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope - duh Kirby - looks fun, nice to finally have a 3D iteration Splatoon 3 - Skipped 2 so looking forward to jumping back in Triangle Strategy - I fell off Octopath Traveller but I think a tactics game might be more my style Elsewhere... Horizon Forbidden West - It'll likely be another cookie cutter Sony openworld game, but the quality will still be high regardless. Enjoyed the first one well enough. Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga - This is taking an age so I can only hope they're working to get it right. I'll likely only play Eps 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 probably :-D God of War Ragnarok - Loved the first game, very much looking forward to this Starfield - really love the look and vibe of this, will probably be my first ever Bethesda game Tunic - looks amazing Darkest Dungeon 2 - Not guaranteed to release in 2022, but if all goes well that's the plan. A sequel to one of my fav games ever.

Good read by The Holywood Reporter: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/robert-rodriguez-interview-book-of-boba-fett-star-wars-1235062364/ - Very few people knew the series was a thing before the reveal teaser at the end of the Mando S2 finale, including most at Disney+ - Showrunner/Director Robert Rodriguez not normally keen on doing established properties. "I’d rather go do something I’ve created so nobody can say, ‘Hey, that’s wrong because..." (sound familiar?), but pulled in by how little had been established about Boba before - The trailers showed footage from the first half of the first episode. They couldn't show anything from the latter half of the opener because it would "give too much away" - “Things turn up you don’t expect, you see things we couldn’t believe we got to do,” he says. “Every episode has big surprises.” - “We’ve always dealt with the Empire and the Jedis; this was about these gangster families and has a rawness to it,” she says. “It’s quite different from The Mandalorian, which is more like a Western.” - Production wasn't impacted by the pandemic in a practical sense, but Rodriguez took every day as if it could be the last before shutting down. - Lucasfilm worked with him instead of telling him what he could and couldn't do. - Potential more seasons if people like it

That's this year's Christmas jumper sorted

The opening game looked amazing, but yet another turn based RPG, so not really my thing.

Good to see devs showing old gen versions, Cyberpunk was probably a kick up the arse a lot of them needed. Still disappointing how it's a last gen game too though and not built from the ground up for PS5.

I tend to avoid spoilers and leaks but couldn't resist here. Really interesting stuff, glad to see so many new mechanics being fleshed out. The systems and physics/chemistry engine from BOTW played a big part in making that game stand out so hopefully the same will be true here.

There's usually one or two previously announced games but these showcases tend to be mainly for new announcements I think.

I'll get in first with the now traditional "Silksong news?!?"

Definitely start with Light of the Jedi. That'll give you a good introduction to the era. The main meat of the story are the adult novels, so that one, then The Rising Storm, and The Fallen Star out next month. Then surrounding those you have the young adult and middle grade books, all the comics, the manga, the audiobook etc. All of those tell different stories in parallel to the major events going on in the novels. All of the above is Phase 1, also called Light of the Jedi. There will be three phases in total, so probably nine adult novels and tons of supplementary stuff when it's all finished in a few years. I think they wanted to give the books a bit of time in the spotlight to kick things off, seems fair enough to me. And yeah I get the impression The Acolyte will only be vaguely related to the High Republic, given they said it was set in its final days. So yeah lots of pressure on Eclipse to deliver and carry on the great work of the books. Oh and yeah hopefully a Fallen Order 2 reveal soon. I had such a great time with that game I'm probably going to replay it on PS5, and I rarely re-play games! 100%

Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon is out today on Switch (and PS4/Steam) Getting great reviews!

Ooof, apart from the Gamecube purple, those are some hideous colours.

Next year's GOTY will be a bloodbath. BOTW2, God of War, Elden Ring, Horizon 2, Starfield, Mario + Rabbids 2... Of course this is the games industry so half that list will probably get pushed into 2023, but still!