mookysam

@KratosMD I really like the story so far and how they've given all the pokémon different personalities. It does highlight how the stories in most of the mainline games are a bit naff.

One aspect of Alpha Sapphire I really appreciated was the bottom screen showing how many pokémon need to be caught in each area. It really helps with filling the pokédex. The monster designs in gen3 are great. I love how the 3D models really bring them to life.

@KratosMD Alpha Sapphire is such a great remake. I enjoyed it a lot more than Y or Moon.

As for me lots more Nier Automata. I'm now on my second campaign. @Jake3103 I'm massively enjoying it. Hope you like it.

Basically done with Mario Odyssey (only the Dark and Darker Side left which I'm losing my motivation for) and mopping up legendary Pokemon in Pokemon Moon, so I can now focus on Explorers of Sky.

Noticed this just now when I went to sync my trophies. Rather irritating.

@ShogunRok Sounds good. Can't go wrong with more of the base game. I don't want to pay £33 for the season pass so just wondering how many story expansions are planned?

That looks gorgeous and @Quintumply the music is worthy of endless praise because it's amazing. Shame I don't have a record player.

Well, now I feel foolish.

How are the camera and controls? I struggled a bit with Tri on the Wii once I got to the harder fights after the story. It was so tanky (and I was a bit crap). Haven't played a Monster Hunter since. Is it more user friendly these days? Does the far superior PS4 controller make a difference?

Ouch. Makoto or Alucard??!??!! I guess Alucard inches it for being so cool and a half-vampire, but still.

Monokuma was an easy choice and I haven't played Destiny or any Witcher games so left that.

Sonic's great and all. I loved those simple Mega Drive days when he was just a speedy blue 'hog with an attitude. Then when they tried to give him more characterisation he ended up having unseemly relations with a human princess. So I voted Yangus.

@masofdas But would you buy it a few weeks or months later for half the price online and actually own the disc? All their first party games drop in price quite rapidly.

YAY!!!

That's perked up my afternoon. Not too long to wait.

For Xbox gamers, I think the value is a little hollow. Having all these games - most of them old - sounds great on paper, but when you consider how many the average gamer would actually have time to play is the value that great? Especially compared to buying the few games you do want brand new for £20 from Amazon?

Sony have considerably more first party titles than Microsoft, and so while value would definitely be there for the consumer, I don't know what benefit is there for Sony. As you say they're still primarily focused on single player experiences.

This idea of basically renting games makes sense as an option for some people. I prefer to own my games outright. I also believe it further erodes our consumer rights in the digital age. If it was to become the norm, I would be concerned at the idea of being locked into myriad subscription services just to play my games. Particularly given the overwhelming majority of what I play it still single-player.

Does a game really have to cost $100 million to make though? Recent Japanese and indie success stories have suggested not. If everything becomes an always online service driven game then gaming in general may well become a lot more boring. There is still room in the market for a spectrum of experiences.

@YummyHappyPills I actually feel that an increase would be preferable to loot boxes and all the rest of it. I remember paying £50 for Sonic and Knuckles in 1995. According to one inflation calculator that is £90 today. Relative to wage growth (which has been stagnant in the UK for many years) and general cost of living, I'm not sure how well the UK market could tolerate a large increase in game prices though.

Quite cool. Not sure I'd be bold enough to wear those outside they are a bit flashy for me!

Today I'm playing lots of Nier Automata. I may even play it all day!

I spent most of the week getting extra power moons in Mario Odyssey (now up to around 700) but don't feel remotely in the mood to play it this weekend.

Continuing with Mario Odyssey and making good progress. I doubt I will get all the moons - there are far too many of them! I think the game would have benefited from having fewer, more purposeful challenges rather than so many "oh that random rock is glowing a bit". Overall it's great though. I like the variety in the worlds and the twist on the traditional lava world was quite interesting.

Also playing Nier. I did the opening bit the other day, which was rather awesome.

God of War II is my favourite. I was amazed by it when I got it and could hardly believe it was running on the PS2. Early 2007 was a great time to still be gaming on the PS2 in Europe (Final Fantasy XII and Ōkami released around the same time!) Amazing pacing with everything that is great about the series. It's wonderful from start to finish.

Still got a few levels of Captain Toad to do. I was hoping to finish it last weekend but had a nasty cold.

I started Super Mario Odyssey yesterday. It's delightful! I'm so glad they returned to the Mario 64/Sunshine style. Possessing things with the hat is a lovely feature.

Not playing anything on PlayStation platforms at the moment for the first time in ages but I might start Tales of Zestiria in the week ooh or better yet Nier Automata.

Just make it faster! I don't like accessing the store on my PS4 (or other Sony consoles) because of how slow and tedious it is and the search function is an abomination. I use the app on my phone as it's quicker and more convenient and I have my wishlist, making it easy to keep track of games I'm interested in purchasing.

Gifting games would be a brilliant feature and I'm genuinely surprised it hasn't been implemented, particularly if it's integrated with wishlists.

After 6 games, I don't think the series had much more mileage in the ancient Greek setting and the gameplay had become rather formulaic, notwithstanding the pretty awesome set-pieces. I enjoyed Ascension, although the combat felt much "heavier". For me, the peak of the series is still God of War 2.

I am anticipating the new one a lot, the change is very good and the Norse setting is cool. I just hope it doesn't ape modern RPG-lite games too much.

@GraveLordXD I found the easiest way to deal with most of them was to take off a chunk of their health with the overpower attack (get the skills that make this more powerful) or sneak attack then immediately get on horseback and attack them whilst circling around as this makes it more difficult for them to hit you.

So. Many. Games. I'm impressed at how Japanese games have come back in a big way. Big Western publishers seem to be making less games though.

Can't wait to play God of War, Ni No Kuni 2, Spiderman, Dragon Quest 11 (and Builders 2 if localised this year), Far Cry 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3!

I'm intrigued by this goose game. A load of geese live in the lake outside my home and have nearly attacked me once or twice! It's quite menacing when they hiss!

Persona 5 is the best game of 2017, hands down. Awesome title!

My second and third choices are Danganronpa V3 and Assassin's Creed Origins respectively.

@get2sammyb Sounds awesome! I used to love my intensive festive gameathons, but haven't done it in years.

This weekend will be mostly spent mopping up games I started earlier in the year and never finished because I got distracted by other things (I'm looking at you Final Fantasy XII). I want to try and clear the slate before the New Year!

On the PS4 I'm playing Crash Bandicoot 2, which I've almost finished. I did some remote play on the Vita last night and it worked flawlessly, which I'm guessing is down to the swanky router we got earlier this year. Crash doesn't need the shoulder buttons which makes it pretty perfect for remote play.

I think I'll also mop up Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker on the Wii U. I finished Super Mario 3D World yesterday, which I thought was quite overrated. The Captain Toad sections are delightful though and what I played of the spin-off is lovely.

I doubt I'll finish Pokémon Moon this weekend, as I got distracted by Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky on the DS. It's rather lovely, even if the gameplay so far doesn't have a huge amount of depth.

@Fight_Teza_Fight I love the PSP remake of Final Fantasy IV. I agree it's pretty snappy paced. It's the easiest Final Fantasy to replay, which I have done several times!

@get2sammyb You finished Persona 5 quickly Sammy! It took me over two months but I am pretty slow haha.

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all had/have a great day!

Looks awesome. I was hoping you could dance as Koromaru in P3D though haha.

Guacamelee is awesome! I played the first on the Vita and absolutely loved it. I'll definitely download this.

Having finished Assassin's Creed Origins - which was excellent - I'm going to spend the weekend playing Pokémon Moon and Super Mario 3D World.

I probably won't game on Christmas or Boxing Day. Maybe some drunken Tekken 3.

I never played the original because I was put off by the puzzles (people said they were quite difficult) but might get this. It seems quite eccentric! I wonder how the vita version will look/run?

That took a while to look through! I might get Ys Origins.

I wonder what was so terrifying about her hoo-ha.

Kanji is one of the greatest characters of all time! Go Kanji!

I also picked Leon (my favourite Resident Evil character), Garrus and Nathan Drake.

Can't wait for these to come out.

That looks incredible. Shame I'm absolutely crap at fighting games!

I've got back into Pokemon Moon quite well so think I might have that finished before Christmas. Also nearing the end of Assassin's Creed Origins so that should be done by next weekend too. If I had completed it a few weeks ago I think I would have ranked it in my best games of the year in the forum poll.

@LocalPenguin Haha same! It'll give me some time to get through more of my backlog too.

@Wesker Yep. The only thing that fixes it is turning my PS4 off. Weird!

Still playing it an enjoying it but I don't think I'll bother with the new features as I'm happy with the challenge of the game as is.

Annoyingly I keep running into a bug where all the icons on the map disappear, meaning I can't fast travel or see quests, among other things. Hopefully that has been fixed.

Yay! I will certainly be buying this. I was going to get the physical PS4 version but I think this would be better suited to the Vita.

Video games are an art form and like other forms of art, should be able to tackle darker subject matter. It certainly shouldn't be removed from an appropriately rated title on the basis that children may play it. The same is true of films and TV programmes.

The arguments by Rantzen and MP simply suggest that they do not fully understand the medium they are criticising. It boils down to the usual "games are bad" nonsense we've been hearing since the '90's and the perception that they are toys.

I've only got one metroid (presumably the queen) left to vanquish in Samus Returns so I imagine that will be finished today. Such an awesome game and a surprise late gem in the 3DS library.

After that I'll return to Pokemon Moon, which a year after starting it I still haven't finished. I don't know why but I've never really got into it properly, which feels odd to me because I generally love Pokemon. It feels like something's missing compared to the 2D entries.

I'm glad to have got back into Trails in the Sky SC but man are the boss battles made difficulty being accompanied by some photographer broad.

Also continuing with Assassin's Creed Origins. I really want to just focus on the main story but my level is too low, which seems to be necessitating the completion of some rather dull side quests.

With all the EA lootbox malarkey I had actually completely forgotten this game existed.

@ShogunRok I reckon Episode Ignis looks pretty interesting, the trailer is dramatic at least. I haven't played the game since I completed it in January and am not sure I will again, even with all the additional DLC. I enjoyed it lots but something is off with having to pay extra just to have the story properly explained.

I'll catch up the next day it's not really a problem. My all-nighters are far behind me haha. It would be nice if they timed things so the European audience could watch them too - especially in the case of E3 - but we did a particularly jam-packed Paris Games Week presentation this year.

I already have Okami on the PS2 and PS3 but might pick that up.

@Hego It also took me ages to get into the first one, but I loved it once it all clicked. They're definitely slow-burners, not exactly helped by the combat. I tend to get really distracted when I play handheld games these days.

I finished Uncharted 4 the other day so have started playing Assassin's Creed Origins. It's the first one I've played since the very first Assassin's Creed and I'm rather enjoying it so far. I really like how smooth the gameplay is, especially the platforming. It's very much a Ubisoft game, but there's nothing wrong with that especially when it's this well made.

On handhelds I finally finished Danganronpa V3 (which was excellent) and am continuing with Samus Returns. When my 3DS is charging I've also got back into Trails in the Sky Second Chapter after a very long break from it.

If there's something I specifically want or need and it's on offer then great, but otherwise I don't really bother. A lot of things seem to be the same price or cheaper at other times throughout the year. I've never braved a shop on Black Friday. It's absolute madness how some people behave and quite sad actually! It represents a lot that is wrong with modern western society. In any case, the BBC reported that shops weren't exactly heaving. I think most people either can't be arsed or simply don't have the cash, given the strain on disposable incomes.

I hadn't even noticed this was missing from the Zodiac Age. I think it's one of those features I opened once or twice in the original and then forgot about.