WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[FLips]

I'm what seems like 100 hours into Dragon Age Inquisition and I've only just unlocked the main hub castle and found out who the main enemy is. It's a mixed bag so far, the gameplay is inoffensive but not gripping me in any real way, the dialogue options are plentiful but as of yet haven't meant anything of any substance, and the sound and voice acting are forgettable.
I paid £2 for it so I can't say it hasn't been worth that, but there are serious issues with the overcomplicated menus and traversing them to do basic things, plus the content is artificially extended by making just doing stuff like buying/selling gear, turning in research and doing some side missions a matter of slogging round the base manually to speak to people. The latter even has real-time waits to do them like a mobile game.

Combat is fine, there's a nice combo system with other party members and a decent amount of customisation options when it comes to classes and skill trees.
It's not awful, but it is really bland and difficult to wrap your head around the most basic of things due to poor design. Will be glad to see the end of it.

I replayed through Pikmin 4 again as well on a whim, and for me it's one of the defining games of the Switch, if not Nintendo's history as a whole. Somehow relaxing and utterly frantic at the same time, and using a "dandori" system like only Nintendo and maybe Sega of old could as a weird but grounded and moreish gameplay system. It's a perfect 10/10 game for me and this replay hasn't changed that. Got 100% of it done in a few days. Absolutely love it.

[DavidB6937]

Haven't actually played anything on my PC yet but been gathering various freebies.  I'm blatantly just going to get distracted by Fallout 3 again 🙄

[Jazzy G]

The Brotato Abyssal Terrors DLC finally landed on Nintendo Switch, so my gaming time is most taken up by that, Power Wash Simulator 2 and those Hidden Cats games (not to be confused with the inferior Cats Hiding series). It's pretty much a whole new game. There was a free update with some new characters, music, weapons and items, but the DLC (which was only £4) has a whole new set of levels and enemies, more characters and weapons. It's breathed a whole new lease of life into a game I already liked to dip into pretty frequently. 

[The King Of Swing]

Just found out that Soul Calibur 3 is coming to PS5/4. 

[TildeGuy~!]

Game Award Nominees are being announced tomorrow at 5PM

[RedTwoster]

2 hours ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Game Award Nominees are being announced tomorrow at 5PM

It’s such a stacked year, that there are going to be some huge games that miss out when it comes to nominations for the top prize. There are six nominees, and as far as I can think you have the following contenders, most of which would seem like obvious nominees on any other year: Clair Obscur, Silksong, Hades 2, Donkey Kong Bananza, Kingdom Come Deliverance, Blue Prince, Death Stranding 2, Split Fiction, Keeper, Absolum, Ghost of Yotei, Look Outside, Shinobi, Goodnight Universe, The Alters, Mario Kart World and Dispatch. There are probably others that I’m forgetting too - Indiana Jones, for example, if that’s eligible. 

I can’t wait to see what makes the cut.

[Jazzy G]

18 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

Just found out that Soul Calibur 3 is coming to PS5/4. 

That's the only one I haven't played, and I hear it's the best one, which is pretty high praise given how much my friend and I loved SoulCalibur 2.

[RedTwoster]

4 hours ago, Jazzy G said:

That's the only one I haven't played, and I hear it's the best one, which is pretty high praise given how much my friend and I loved SoulCalibur 2.

I remember being very underwhelmed by it at the time, it didn’t live up to 2 for me. But I could absolutely see it being the kind of game I revisit and really enjoying.

[TildeGuy~!]

Konatsu Kato for best performance or we riot!

[The King Of Swing]

5 hours ago, Jazzy G said:

That's the only one I haven't played, and I hear it's the best one, which is pretty high praise given how much my friend and I loved SoulCalibur 2.

It's very close between 2 and 3. Though I've always been under the impression that SC2 is generally considered the high point of the series. 

I occasionally give SC1 a go on my Dreamcast. Still holds up incredibly well. 

 

[Jazzy G]

I have them all, apart from SC 3 on my 360/XBox One. Unfortunately it's that arcade port of the first one in XBLA. I've got SC2 on PS2 and even have Soul Blade on PlayStation, but the disk has seen better days. 

I didn't mind SC6, in that I preferred it to 5, but I feel that from 4 onwards the series has been trying to keep up with the Tekkens of this world with the 1 button supers etc, where SoulCalibur 2 was a lot more of a "pure" fighting experience. Edge Master mode was, and still is brilliant. The weapon master or whatever it's called mode in SC6 comes close, but I don't think they'll recapture the greatness of that second (and from what I've head) third instalments. Sometimes I'll fire up SC2 on the Gamecube section of the Switch Online pass for a blast from the past. 

[RedTwoster]

1 hour ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Konatsu Kato for best performance or we riot!

It’s a crowded field, and I’m a little surprised that Andy Serkis didn’t get a nod. That said, it’s Jennifer English or Ben Starr for me. Both are career-best performances, and both add so much depth and emotion to the stories they’re trying to tell. They also seem like lovely people. 

Troy Baker is fantastic in Indiana Jones, but he’s won plenty of awards already, so while the nomination is certainly deserved, I’m not sure the award is this time around given the level of competition.

[Merzbow]

So Dispatch is the big thing right now, as a hater of most things Superhero I was skeptical and I still am so far but it's impressing me a little. It's by a lot of the old devs at Telltale and you can tell, similar kind of writing and humour to games like The Wolf Among Us while taking a lot from The Boys without being quite so edgy. Looking forward to playing the other episodes and hope it keeps up being good.

[RedTwoster]

A very hot take here given that it’s only just out but Kirby Air Riders might be my favourite Nintendo kart racer ever. There’s so much to do, and it’s so much fun. Plus every vehicle feels different, which I hadn’t expected or noticed in the free demo. 

[Cousin Jim Bob]

4 hours ago, RedTwoster said:

A very hot take here given that it’s only just out but Kirby Air Riders might be my favourite Nintendo kart racer ever. There’s so much to do, and it’s so much fun. Plus every vehicle feels different, which I hadn’t expected or noticed in the free demo. 

 

It's getting mixed reviews and feedback but a lot of comments saying that it is like Smash Bros. That if it clicks for you, then you are really going to love it and get a ton out of it.

Seems a proper marmite game.