HUMPERDOO

I've put in about 20 hours so far and I'm absolutely loving it. But it's definitely not without its problems. Aside from the control scheme, which got on my nerves at first but I have at least got used to, there are other systems at play that could really do with patching. The wanted system is way too aggressive, for instance. You can end up with a bounty on your head and being exiled from an area for things that are seemingly innocuous or else completely out of your control (like NPCs suddenly running out in front of your horse, for example). Things like this and some others would have made me hand it a 9 if I were a reviewer. But it is incredible, and once you get passed the opening hours and get used to the pace I do agree it comes into its own and becomes something remarkable. Though I feel bad for the people who find it too slow and can't get to the point me and others of the same view have. They're not wrong in sense, but if only they could hold out a little longer...

Intelligent Qube! Fist-pump

Received. Bloody iPhone.

Recorded my pre order yesterday and put in a few hours last night. Loving it so far, but the controls are indeed crappy. I'm sure I'll get used to them, but holding down a button for seemingly everything is definitely a drag.

Really enjoyed my time with Spidey, but I've sold my copy now since RDR2 means thee's no way I'd get to any DLC for this any time soon. Most likely I'll just re-buy it in the future when the inevitable complete edition's available at a discount.

Piers Morgan saw the thumbnail and cancelled his pre-order.

I'll only turn to a guide when I've reached a point of frustration at which I'm in danger of putting my foot through the tele. Once that's out of the way it's no more guide. I do have the nagging feeling of having cheated myself, though, and there are few feelings as painful as that.

@PS_Nation Next week on Name That Conspiracy...!

@gingerfrog More time has passed between the referendum and now than did between the 2015 and 2017 general elections. How does that square with your idea of a democratic voting system? The idea that we voted once and that's all there is to it is a tired and disingenuous argument.

If nothing else, Image/Skybound could consider putting out a limited run WD comic with the final season's narrative. At least that would give fans some kind of closure.

@get2sammyb Yep, loved it. Playing the SotC remaster between bouts of Spider-Man at the moment and every time I climb a colossus I shed a little tear for Trico.

I enjoyed the freshness gameplay-wise of the reboot, but both it and Rise just had the most horrible writing and infuriating 2D, cut and paste characters. Wasn't really a fan of the added open-world elements of Rise either, and everything I've seen of this one points to that being even more the case, with loads of needless bloat. I really hope this trend of making every game open world gets lost in a tomb in the very near future.

@Th3solution Or maybe replace it with something like "Maddie, you harlet!!!"

@Bad-MuthaAdebisi Agreed. There is something deeply wrong with the idea that words and nudity are more offensive than murder and gratuitous violence. If you don't care for strong language, fine. If you're too prudish to deal with a human being's natural state, fine (weird, but fine). But if those two things get you more upset than charging around killing with abandon, however, then that is some serious cognitive dissonance.

Looks pretty, but the writing's as bad as ever alas.

I'm assuming you have to stand while playing, with some other dude's sweaty armpit in your face.

Something tells me she won't be joined by Joel. He'll obviously feature, since he was in the reveal trailer. But the E3 video seemed to suggest Joel was the head honcho around whatever community that was, so I suspect he'll stay there to continue that work while Ellie heads off on her revenge mission. Chronologically I'd say the reveal trailer - where Joel asks Ellie if she's sure she's going to go through with 'it' - occurs after what we saw at E3.

@get2sammyb The next iteration should be a slimmed down pro in my opinion. By that point the necessary components should have reduced enough in cost to make releasing a revised vanilla SKU redundant. Having this choice halfway through the life cycle makes sense, but when you're reaching the end you might as well just amalgamate.

I think I love rumours more than games these days!

@ShogunRok Cannot wait until he's back on our screens. Let's just hope he's got a manslaughter waiver in his conetract.

I bloody love Super Hot. If you have PSVR and haven't tried this you should definitely correct that toot sweet!

The only time I seem to run into tracking issues is when I crouch behind something. There doesn't seem to be a camera placement in my lounge that will capture everything. But I think that might be more a failing of the PS camera than the game.

I'll be booking the whole autumn off work and ordering a kilo of chewing tobacco. Just need to remember where I put my spittoon...

Could have put money on it. But at the same time: Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

@SuperSilverback They really are horrendous, aren't they? I fear for the sanity of anyone who likes them...

Ooooooooooooooooooooooh.

Fingers crossed for good reviews on this. Looks really interesting. Right up my mysterious cobbled alley.

Just air-dropping in to @Quintumply 's defence here! He's completely correct about this usage of "cum" (Ooh er). It's also used when two formerly separate places, usually hamlets or villages, become one. For instance, there's a town in Cambridgeshire called Stow cum Quy, the result of two places, Stow and Quy, merging. It's pretty archaic, that said, and I've never seen it anywhere but the UK, so if you guys aren't UK-based it's not a surprise you aren't familiar with it.

Naturally I still snicker like a nine-year-old when I drive past the Stow cum Quy sign, though. I am but a man, after all!

Notwithstanding RDR2, this is probably the game I'm looking forward to most this year. Last Spider-Man game I enjoyed (despite its flaws) was Ultimate on the Gamecube. Looks like they've nailed it from what I've seen. Hopefully it's not ruined by the same rinse and repeat structure that destroys my interest in most recent open world games.

@KingSandyRavage The MackyD analogy above is spot on. There's a distinction between 'successful' and 'quality' which applies to almost everything in this world. Not just games, but films, books, music, theatre, clothes, etc etc etc. Generally speaking, the things we can unequivocally agree are successful (i.e. the money they earn is there for all to see in sales charts, company profit returns, etc) rarely overlap with those the 'critical community' consider representative of a high standard. Put together a top ten of the 2017 games that sold most and I'm sure CoD would be on there (not my kind of game so wouldn't have a clue), but this site produces critical responses to games so has a different criteria when putting together these lists. One of those things will be originality, which, however solid a game it might be, CoD quite obviously lacks. Getting prettier and prettier with each release doesn't count.

Well I just crumbled and bought a PSVR, so I’ll be spending Christmas ignoring my friend and relatives in favour of shooting bad guys and ogling wildlife. Much like every Christmas really.

Aargh! Just bought re7 yesterday for £18. Typical.

Online battle mode sounds like an amazing idea. I'll have some of that.

I'd love a sequel, but a remaster would be just as welcome. Batsh*t crazy but also pretty tight in its execution, I thought.

Any word of this coming to the UK? Been considering VR for a while now and that £199 bundle would be very tempting indeed.

(naturally I'm assuming the $ will just get swapped for £ as usual, though we'd at least have tax included, of course)

“If someone’s sad, you’re not gonna start going nuts on the banjo,” he joked.

I respectfully disagree. There's nothing like a banjo to get you out of a funk!

EDIT: Double that for a funky banjo!

I think I'll look to someone other than Esther "me and my mate, Jimmy Saville" Rantsen when it comes to advice on child abuse.

What's the runtime? I'm a big fan of the Apes franchise (most intelligent blockbuster IP out there in my opinion) so would go for this just for the story if it's in the 2-3 hour region...

@Th3solution Exaggerated/stylised body forms was always part of FOTNS

But also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMiKyfd6hA0

That was the most enjoyable review I've read in ages. Almost makes the little effort Team 6 put into the game seem worthwhile!

@kyleforrester87 Then I reckon BOTW is the one for you, man. I've been having huge issues getting into open world games these last couple of years. Horizon kept me going longer than most but I still tuned out before the end of the main story. Conversely, I'm currently 95+ hours deep in BOTW and keep putting off finishing the main quest because I don't want it to end. There's pretty much nothing about it they haven't got right.

Won't be returning to this. Drove me absolutely nuts the first time around. The amount of times your chosen response/enquiry failed to be reflected by what actually occurred afterwards ruined the idea I had any agency over how things progressed. I'd pick an option thinking it seemed easy-going or gently does it etc, only for Phelps to start barking at the POI and completely ruin my plan. Jeez, Cole, I thought we were partners!

Cole Phelps should have been issued with a cyanide pill before entering the ring. Guy never stood a chance!

@get2sammyb "I think single player games will continue to exist, but it's clearly becoming incredibly difficult for publishers to justify funding them. Games like Uncharted, God of War, The Witcher, Horizon, et al are not cheap AT ALL to make. And while we've certainly seen some lower budget single player games have success this year (NieR, Nioh, etc) I do think we're going to get less and less of them moving forwards."

Is not a significant part of the reason these games are so expensive to develop these days is because so much time and energy is funnelled into the aesthetics? I'd say the majority of the time this is used to cover up unoriginal gameplay and narratives. Don't get me wrong, I like pretty things as much as the next guy, but it doesn't matter how good the paint is if the box has caught rot. They're only that expensive because they've made them that expensive (if that makes sense). It reminds me of something you said recently in relation to Battlefront 2's shortcomings, that we're kind of to blame for it, too. I think that's the case here as well. We've spent so many years banging on about graphics and photorealism that we're partly responsible for the industry adopting it as a major priority. We've shot ourselves in the foot here and can't really complain (although I will, of course, because I bloody love complaining!)

There's an argument to say it doesn't matter if a bunch of us prefer single-player, story-driven games. If the publishers (which it seems to be more so than developers) see more money in service-based all they have to do is take away the option of single-player, as they seem to be doing. Then from our perspective it's either re-adjust and learn to get on with MP/service games, or give up on gaming. The severe lack of them in recent years has definitely seen a decline in the amount of time I play games. And it's probably also had a lot to do with the indies returning to old skool bullet-hell / dungeon crawler games etc and that being successful (that and the rampant addiction to nostalgia swaddling western societies right now) .

@ShogunRok 42

@ShogunRok Is what anyone who buys this is on in the taste stakes!

I'd be tempted by Doom, but I recently got a Switch to compliment the PS4 and although there'll be technical downgrades, holding off to play a FPS of that quality on the go will stay my hand.

RE7 for £25 on the other hand...

This stinks more than my cheese.

@JoeBlogs Too true. And I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm annoyed per se, but since my comment attracted some attention I felt I had to explain myself, and once I get going it's generally hard to stop

@JoeBlogs Well though my problem's writing related, it's really more a personality thing. "Wait, Open World, Sci-Fi Action RPG ELEX Is Out on PS4 Tomorrow?" isn't a terribly constructed sentence, I know. It's more that it's an example of how more and more of what we're fed online is crouched in an extreme of one kind or another. Everything is 'breathtaking' or 'stunning', or else 'horrific' or 'vile' etc. There's very little middle ground, a dwindling presence of nuance. And as I see it there's a direct correlation between this development and the similar extremes we're seeing in politics and peoples' attitudes to one another. Extremes are governing all right now. So to put this in the context of 'Wait...', it's used to inject nonexistent drama into a heading that doesn't need it. Now I get that it's a tough old game out there for sites like PS. Lots of competition to bat away and whatever method works, etc. But one of the things I appreciate about PS is how adult and balanced it is. Comment discussions are generally polite and respectful of others' opinions, even when they differ, and the staff even acknowledge when they're churning out filler articles, click-bait etc. But for me that's damaged when internet writing trends like this are adopted, because it makes everything read as if produced by someone in the early throes of puberty, a bunch of school kids gossiping in the playground. Most likely that makes me sound like some kind of snob, but, well, so what? I'd rather that than have every site I visit look like IGN, Cinemablend or somewhere, where most if not all headings begin in the vein of 'Wait...!', or 'Why you need to know so and so...' or 'The real reason, etc etc.'
I'm just saying this site's better than that, that's all, as are plenty of others who follow the same trends. Just my two pence.