GeeEssEff

I completely forgot about the new 007 game. Hitman 3 and world of assassination was my most played game of 2021 and one of my favourite of the generation so I can’t wait to see what IOI do with Bond. Bioshock 4 would also be an unbelievable announcement.

I’m getting Deja Vu here

Excellent news. Larian continue to deliver the goods.

@Ricky63 It didn’t work in Forza because of how grindy and laborious the upgrade system was. If Test Drive lets us upgrade cars with money and they aren’t too stingy with the race payouts I think it could be a winner. I vaguely remember the original TDU made you work for the cars and it felt good earning them however I also remember playing it religiously in Uni where I had all the time in the world to game so probably didn’t feel like a grind at the time. I hope they balance it right in this one.

I finally picked up FF7 Rebirth in the sale. I have been holding off as I didn’t particularly gel with the last one but I am enjoying this way more than I thought I would.

I will be peppering in some Age of Wonders 4 as well. I picked it up again recently and it has hooked me big time.

For me the proof is in the pudding when the game actually releases. Guarantee the comments on the Helldivers 2 and Stellsr Blade announcements were ridiculously negative and look at how they performed. Modern gamers love nothing more than complaining and it comes from a place of strange entitlement. It’s not like Hermes Hulst can just squat down and poop out a blockbuster. A game is an incredibly intricate piece of media which in many ways just feels like pure black magic to me. There is no other form of entertainment on earth that lets me interact with it the way games do and that can’t possibly be easy to create.

It’s not like we aren’t short of games to play at the moment anyway. There’s at least 3 AAA games on my backlog just from this year let alone the indies and the games I didn’t get to in 2023. With the way people go on with the negativity I wonder why they even bother to game at all as it just seems to be an endless source of dissapointment for them.

I like the look of it. Excited to try it out.

When are they going to discount the dualsense edge? It retails at around £60 more than an Xbox Elite controller with less rear paddles, no ps4 backwards compatibility, poorer battery life and a case without a built in charging function. I really want a pro controller for my PS5 but spending over £200 is just excessive and I don’t particularly want to go third party having been burnt many times on the peripheral front.

I’m half tempted by either Rebirth or Rise of Ronin. Amazon has the exact same prices for these though so I might buy physical

I’ve played a fair amount already. I couldn’t stick at it all day like I used to with some of the old Black Ops but it is a lot of fun in bursts.

If Ubisoft service this the way they have Rainbow 6 Siege it really could be one to watch. I hope it keeps its momentum because at the very least it might make ABK up their game with COD a bit.

@Cherip-the-Ripper Yeh it seems to be a bit all over the place. I wonder if you get bonus xp for kills in a row. I’m probably averaging about 20 kills per match but my KD is pretty crap. Maybe kills near objectives or something as well. I just wish there was an explanation.

As it currently stands reaching level 50 with a gun has to be like 15-20 hours of game time. The addictive thing about these games is the feeling of constant progression and at the moment I don’t think they have nailed that.

Couldn’t agree more with this review. Fun but quite far off it’s full potential. I genuinely hope it doesn’t die a death because in 6-12 months time it could be great. A quick win for Ubisoft would definitely be to increase weapon xp gain by at least 25%. Four full matches using the AK last night with a good amount of kills only got me a single level. Can’t imagine the amount of time it will take to get the better attachments.

I love a strategy game. What I have noticed though is that modern ones are just getting way too complex because they are constantly trying to evolve the genre and it seems the only way they have found to do that is to add more systems which need learning and managing. I have a shorter attention span nowadays and less time to game so I am much less likely to buy a strategy game day one because I’m worried about the investment of time it is going to need to learn it, let alone master it.

Good review. I have been really looking forward to this mainly due to loving a lot of the games that it inspired but never played the original. I didn’t really stop to think about how more modern takes on a genre can often improve the overall experience and add quality of life features I often take for granted in games nowadays.

I’m still interested but it’s probably a sale buy rather than a day one buy for me. Appreciate the honest reviews Push. I would rather you give me pause for thought then encourage me to spend money on something I would probably get frustrated with.

@Ravix While it’s not available to pre order it does at least have some official recognition from PlayStation: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/games/black-myth-wukong/

Maybe they haven’t decided on a price yet. System Shock is out tomorrow and there’s no pre order/digital price for that either and I’m pretty sure some Indie games haven’t even appeared on the store until they release. I’m not too worried about it being a scam, more worried about it not living up to expectations!

@BAMozzy Lol I completely forgot Xbox had stupidly promised to bring COD to Switch in a desperate bid to appease the regulators. Thank you, that reminder got a hearty chuckle out of me on a slow Friday afternoon. Can’t wait to see how that s***show turns out.

@danzoEX Yeh I’ve heard good things about NCAA but what is the difference from a gameplay perspective? Questions coming from a naive British person who has never played a college football game and only dabbled in Madden.

Gameplay wise is this basically just Madden but with different players?

Tbh I quite like an open world Ubisoft tick box game, especially now there seems to be a much bigger gap between each one. I do think this could benefit from being smaller in scope than Valhalla and Odyssey though. It does get a bit much and I tend to get bored of them before even completing the story.

I am hooked on Hades 2 on steam deck. Aside from that I am chipping away at Stellar Blade and I want to give Animal Well some more time as well. Very intrigued by the opening hour.

Microsoft really are just one of the most abhorrent companies on Earth.

I played a few hours last night on the steam deck and it’s really good. It feels a bit harder than the first or maybe I’m out of practice but it feels both familiar and different. I do love how games just randomly drop on steam. I was minding my own business then out the blue I get an email “a game on your wishlist is out in early access”….shut up and take my money steam. Fingers crossed for a console port soon!

Got visitors for most of the weekend (😭) but the moment they leave on Monday I will be back on Stellar Blade!

@Lup Please do tell us more about how that game you 100% haven’t played is a 6/10

8 for me. The gameplay is super fun it’s just let down by a few issues that stop the whole experience being exceptional. I will say though for a first attempt at an AAA game, Shift Up have done a truly incredible job. I haven’t completed it yet so don’t know if the story opens itself up to a sequel but if it does, I can’t wait to see how they iterate on this!

I think live service could suit a Skate game if they don’t mess too much with what made the old games great and offer a reasonable amount of free unlockables to compliment the paid stuff. I spent sooooo many hours playing Skate 2 at uni with my housemates so this series will always have a special place for me.

@Yorozayu Tbh I’m not usually particularly invested in stories in games. I’m a pure gameplay man and a serial cut scene quitter so I was not put off when reading about the characters and acting being a bit rubbish but it is hilariously noticeable. It’s like they recorded all the actors separately, gave them absolutely zero context for the scenes and just said “yep that’ll do” after the first take. I’ve seen planks of wood with more personality. But weirdly I am actually interested in the overall story and the world it’s just the acting and character development that seems a bit naff.

@Czar_Khastik Haha playing Pentiment is the closest I have come to reading a book in the last few years. I didn’t get very far.

@Zenos I do love a good rant before fully reading the comment I’m ranting about.

@Zenos fair point I misread, apologies 😀

@Zenos That, to some extent, will play a part but I think the general view that it’s only selling well because of tiddies is doing a disservice to the devs. I can only speak for myself here but I would still think it’s a good game if the main character was a 45 year old hairy bloke wearing a bin bag and a clown mask.

Yes a portion of the buyers will have bought it for the perving but I would hazard a guess that the majority of players bought it because it reviewed well and is a good game in its own right. If it got 4/5/6 scores it probably wouldn’t have sold nearly as well.

@Yorozayu Cheers mate I will absolutely give it a go at some point. My New Year’s resolution was to stop buying so many full priced games and I have failed at that miserably so far this year so will wait till it’s cheaper and I have cleared some of the backlog.

@Yorozayu This is one of the things I am really enjoying about it, that I wasn’t expecting. I know if I trek out of my way to that random corner of the map it’s going to reward me for making the journey and quite often there’s some interesting surprises.

Very good game overall but I’d agree with a lot of the criticisms. Frustrating platforming, terrible English voice acting and the side quests are pretty dry. However the actual gameplay, combat, exploration, world building, upgrade system, performance and visuals are excellent. A good part of my love this game stems from going in expecting a linear, button mashing fighter who’s only unique selling point is its hyper sexualisation but instead finding a really well designed new IP.

I’ve got to admit despite being a lover of Nioh I was pretty put off by the critical reception but most of the stuff I have seen from players has been really positive. Might need to pick this up when I have got through some of my current backlog

When I read that a petition has hit Change.org requesting more cleavage on a digital video game character my faith in humanity dropped. Gamers are only just starting to shed the reputation of being awkward, sweaty, Mountain Dew chugging, neckbeard types and then we go and petition for more cleavage. I get the overall discussion around censorship is important but this just seems like a really bizarre hill to die on.

Stellar blade for me. Really enjoying it so far. The flow and timing of combat takes a bit of getting used to be it’s very satisfying when you get it right.

Been looking forward to this upgrade for weeks but playing it in 2024 feels a bit crap. Awful inventory management system, littered menus, loading screen for every building and general jank. I know it’s a 9 year old game with a fresh coat of paint but for me it really highlights how much Bethesda desperately need to do something new with their open world RPG formula if they want to remain relevant in the future. I will give it more time but with every annoyance I’m remembering why I dropped it halfway through on PS4.

Buzzin for this. Hopefully they iron out the bugs before the console release

I downloaded it, transferred my save and played for about an hour before a bunch of super mutants blew me up and I lost half of that progress so I rage quit. It was really nice in 60fps and I will play more over the weekend.

@NEStalgia Have a day off mate.

I didn’t think I would get this but the stars have aligned: it releases on payday, I have a completely free weekend and have been desperately craving a new action game. Bring it on I can’t wait!

@Marquez YES! Completely forgot about G Police. Thank you for the nostalgia shot.

Won’t have too much time to play this weekend but when I do I will be slowly making my way through the final chapters of Infinite Wealth and I will give Miasma Chronicles a go as well.

@Gigawatt-Kapow I have a really close friend who I love dearly but we have got into some blazing rows because we are polar opposite in so many of our ideologies. For that reason I completely understand where you’re coming from on all this. When you have been friends with someone for so long you know nothing you say will change their mind on a topic so what’s the point in getting into an argument that’s going to leave you both frustrated and angry. Our arguments have never got in the way of our friendship and never had lasting damage but they also haven’t contributed anything either. Some friends you can debate with and some you can’t but it doesn’t mean you should just instantly drop them as a friend.

This all got very philosophical and off topic didn’t it. Annyyywayyy fun looking game I will dive in!

@Dragoon1994 both excellent choices. Outside of FromSoftware games Nioh 2 is probably my fav so would absolutely recommend that (the first one is anlso exceptional but the sequel improves on it in every possible way). Lies of P is alot of fun as well although I hit a wall and never completed it.

@Dragoon1994 This is why I thought I would love it…I’m a massive soulslike fanboy so this should have been a slam dunk for me. I did try it last year during a busy period so I should probably give it another go when I can give it the attention it deserves. Glad you enjoyed it though, has it tempted you into trying some other soulslikes?

The first Tails of Iron should have been right up my street but for some reason I couldn’t get into it. I might give it another go before the sequel comes out because I really want to love it!

Midnight suns is an underrated gem so I’m looking forward to seeing how this turns out

The rollercoaster of emotions reading that headline and strapline

A new Rayman game is coming this year 😀
but not in the way everyone wants 🤔
Board game launching in Q3 😕