Anke

Fantastic! More Ciri please.

Are they calling it an Alpha purely so the critics aren't too harsh on it?
I'm sure it was past that before now.

@Constable_What genuinely curious why you’d do something again you’ve done before when you could be doing/playing something new?
Although I must admit to being caught up in the trophy meta game so there’s no point to me playing things twice.

Yes it was utterly brilliant but I don't need to play it again. Nobody does.
Maybe "We Sing" though because that was fantastic.

@Sxio I probably did indeed but I didn't actually feel any need to use anything but my katana all the way through. I did turn on a skill or two specifically for trophies but after the reset they did the first time I didn't bother putting any back on.

Let's hope he's "extremely reactive" about his game being switched off next year.

I am actually considering getting up at 04:00 to start playing. Too excited!

@DennisReynolds even in later scenes when I know they’re coming they still scare the pants off me 😄

Will absotivelyposolutely definitely get these, this game is superb! Well apart from the jumpscares that is, wish there was a setting to turn those off.

First AW for me, apart from Control I suppose, and it's really quite amazing.
But wow was I not ready for jumpscares! Now I'm playing it with one eye closed
Remedy really know how to immerse you in a special world.

@PenguinLtd absolutely! Glad I'm not the only one too.

It's a 7 for me, yes it looks stunning and swinging is fantastic but everything else is just a tad dull.
It did also make me think about skill trees. Apart from one I had to choose to unlock a trophy I didn't spend a single skill point, same with Cyberpunk too. These things used to be useful now they're pointless and just add too much complexity.

Fair dos, take your time and make it great but "maximise its value creation" did make me throw up in my mouth.

Going to have to agree with a couple of the above, it was pretty boring yet lovely to look at and well past it's welcome by the time the platinum pops.
I don't think I'll bother with the inevitable New Game Plus trophy.

I love me some trams and I've had the main game on my wishlist for a long time but there's just too many bugged trophies for me to get it.

Ahhh I remember it like it was yesterday. Can't wait for this.

Many crashes for sure and just a couple of bugs: got stuck in some people, and for some reason it kept telling me I was outside the playable area even though I wasn't.

Really looking forward to this! Pre-ordered and ready to go on the 31st.

Spidey was definitely up there in an especially slow year but I think my most anticipated of the year was either Dead Island 2 or The Crew Motorfest.

Perfect, thanks @LiamCroft, your guides are always great to follow along with and as always I really appreciate the amount of work you've all put in here.

Perfect filler just before Spidey. I do love me some classic detectiveness.

I was hoping for something newer than a jump and a side-swipe mechanic both of which seem aimed purely at multiplayer.
It's no bad thing but it just feels like just new cars and tracks for the old game.
I also strangely miss the opening of blind boxes to get new cars but at least easier to get what you want I suppose.

@Matroska glad it's not just me getting old then

Hands up who'll be able to remember any of the controls in 2024?
This is why I'm a fan of early DLC.

The sad thing is that right now there are companies tripping over themselves to offer him more money to be their CEOs.

@ShogunRok that'll do me, thanks mate.

This actually sounds much better than the last two which were a backwards step for me, the last great one was Syndicate so I'm hoping it's more like that.
@ShogunRok you did say that "there are no power levels" so does that mean that one-shot bow and arrow headshots are back?

I love reading these travelogues.
Quite envious though

Still pretty much unbeatable for that sense of speed and being there.

As someone who is going on a holiday taking in Crewe next week this is brilliant.
I just went down a fabulous rabbit hole whilst googling about this controller/console thing. Fantastic!
One of these days I will attempt one of the huge Train Sims too, but that trophy list is so so big!

I always felt the racing was better in Sport than GT7.
Perhaps they should've kept the Sport version for serious racing and GT7 for fun racing?

Looks much more time-friendly than the colossal Odyssey and Valhalla platinums.

I love these kind of articles.
It's been on my bucket list for years so I'm very envious.

I'm really enjoying it and it feels so much better than it did back in those first weeks.
Although as I haven’t played it in so long, and they’ve reset the perks and cyberware, I have no idea what any of them are so I’m just ignoring them all completely.

@nessisonett and if anyone has ever called it a buttery I'd love to meet them.

Just wanted to add this for regional context.

Still haven't played Bloodborne but alarmingly none of my top games are on the list so I must have terrible taste.

@captainsandman @Olmaz following up, to be honest there's not much to see in the settings apart from the deadzones:
I changed my braking deadzone back to 10 as it suited my style of braking a tad more I found. All others to zero.
The pro-settings are pretty much car to car if you wish and I didn't touch them for anything off-road.
I'm no doubt teaching gran to suck eggs here but as for the slippery ice feeling just don't mash that pedal to 100% until you are either in a straight line or you know you won't need to release it again (or you're having fun sliding of course) but I find it's easy to hold off the slide by balancing the throttle on and off and trail braking apart (hence my 10% deadzone).
I'm also probably making it sound more difficult than it is but I'm really appreciating how much fun they've made it to get to that limit.

Wow! I was not expecting this to ever show up after that awful Heartland.
Division 2 is one of my favourite games of all time so I am booked on the first hype-train out of the station.

@captainsandman the most important for me was the deadzones. Can’t remember off hand but I think it was a 10% deadzone which is madness. Definitely make it zero. The other settings were all pretty much off for me, the Pro Settings were on a car to car basis.

@Olmaz absolutely I will for another Driveclub fan 😄 I’ll post a screenshot when I get home in a few days but in the meantime get on that trial as you’ll really love those long races through the countryside.

Definitely one of the better handling arcade racers in a long while, once you’ve tweaked a lot of settings and gotten rid of the deadzones that is. Also extra points for giving us settings for camber, suspension, anti-roll bars etc. Once you are all set the ability to control the car in the corners with the throttle and brake is sublime hilarious fun and means you can place the car precisely where you want it so easily.
I hesitate to say it but I think that the cockpit view is the closest we’ve come in years to the king that was Driveclub. By which I mean there’s quite the authentic sense of speed, couple that with the bumpy undulating roads and races of a decent length and this really does bring back great memories.
I haven’t come across any bugs but the amount of hard crashes is alarming. Multiplayer brought lots of “connectivity issues” that drove our crew mad trying to race together (turning off cross-play fixed it).
My biggest bugbear, and something that in this current generation really shouldn’t be an issue, is that the mirrors don’t work.
Apart from that, this is an easy 9/10 from me. It loses a point for having so few 2020+ cars and brands. I might give it a 10 if the endgame/updates are decent enough.

The first game was great fun but I thought it wasn’t well looked after once you’d finished it so these modes might help, extra trophies would too of course. Still day one on the next instalment whatever happens.

How one company can cause so much damage through greed is quite astonishing really.

@Marquez it wasn't until the Portal popped into my head that I realised this would be great as a pick-up-and-play game between all the others.
Glad you think so too and glad you're enjoying it, I'm looking forward to it at Christmas now.

Is it weird to change your mind on playing a game in the brief seconds between voting and typing a comment?
Too much Red Bull today I think.

I think I'll leave it for Christmas as it looks perfect to play on the PlayStation Portal.
I'm also over 120hrs into the platinum grind for Everspace 2 so in need of some short games for a while too.

Four wheels = pre-ordered.

This'll get lost all the way down here but shop.to has £84 virtual cards for £70.41.
https://www.shopto.net/en/dls551143-playstation-wallet-top-up-84-ps5-ps4psn-p1173384/

Obvious day one purchase as it's a game with four wheels in it but can I mention the lack of terrain deformation there?