Childintime wrote:

When. The devs answers on twitter that it'll come "later" after the switch version is all taken care of. Probably end of this year, early 2018.

Nice.

revelthedog wrote:

Jumped back into just cause 3. Only because it being on ps plus reminded me I had it.
I really have a lot of fun because it's not taking itself too seriously.

Playing this too before Destiny 2 comes out. It's obviously got issues but is also just crazy fun as well. I've been enjoying it

Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime

Browsing through the Bone ready to install list with my lad for something for us to play together and thought we'd give this a blast. What an absolute treat.

We're only on the easiest difficulty (he's only 5) but he's got really into it, especially the gem combos. Metal/ Beam shield is his favourite and he managed to get us the achievement for attaching loads of projectiles. We've offed 3 bosses this afternoon and enjoyed every minute.

I imagine it's a right laugh on the hardest difficulty with 4 players. Some nice mechanics get added, and it all looks really nice. Gutted it isn't online.

Polished off the Mass Effect:A main quest today. A ton of side stuff still to do but I wanted to move on.

Next up is either Tokyo Mirage Sessions or Xenoblade Chronicles X.
Both are really pushing it for being a bit too anime for my tastes, we will see.
Played through the prologue of Tokyo earlier, it is very Japanese but the mental boss made me laugh so and I wasn't totally confused by the stat progression etc so it may stick.

Xeno, I did the character creator then had to go out. Obviously picked the "cor blimey guvnah" voice. Hopefully I can get a pearly mech.

Little bit of progress in Super Metroid

I've defeated the Phantoon boss, looked it up and turns out you can do a
It's such a brilliant game, exploring is relaxing and exciting at the same time, never too hard to get around, but not everything is easy to reach. Sometimes you need to backtrack a bit, but it never feels like a slog, the world feels so big but it's actually quick to navigate. Power ups get handed out without needing to do anything for it, but you can stumble upon bosses everywhere.

And sometimes you just find surprises, like
Think there are 3 or 4 gaps in my inventory screen (2 misc and 1 boots I know for sure, maybe one in my weapon section too), so once I get them I'm gonna go after missed tanks. Got 5 so far and 1 super tank or whatever it's called.

Next to an amazing game to play and explore, it's so beautiful, the art is amazing and the music fits it.

Looking forward to what they've done with Metroid 2 remake. I got the original cartridge at a flea market, but never really played it (got a Gameboy after I had my gba, never really got used much).

Also found out that, thanks to a Twitter game, the original Metroid was released in the same month and year I was born. I like that, Metroid had always been special to me, for various reasons.

@Nina - loving the Metroid posts.

The statue with the gems. Most gratifying. And as for the unfolding inventory screen - Nintendo are great at that.

That soundtrack.

Brinstar is my fave. Love Maridia (?) underwater too.

Luigi's Mansion 2

Started it on holiday, hopefully I'll play and finish it rather than get distracted by other stuff.

Laptop life:

Hollow knight. still amazing. Pushing 37 hrs I think, and a long ways to go.

12 is better than 6. hand drawn top down sort of twin stick shooter. Rough around the edges, but visceral and snappy. Perfect break from hollow knight material.

Pako 2 still the occasional dabble. As it's in early access, worth checking in to try versions. Perfect with tunes when I have 15 minutes.

Solus project started. Spent way to long getting controller working. Purdy, except for the fucking on screen indicators.

Cities had a break, but will get back to it soon. So amazing. Another month of off season. So I better get cracking on these games.

Just Cause 3: Not the greatest opening when the AI guy dies twice before I can rescue him. Twat. Then your zipping up to a gunship, taking it over, exploding everything in sight and you remember how much fun Rico can be.

Decided to give Absolver a go.

Interesting game to approach whilst everyone is plsying D2 as this has such a rock solid core appeal, but none of the money behind it that D2 has,which means it feels a bit aesetic by limitations rather than intent.

The premise is simple: explore a ruined and interconnected city as a masked martial artist. Beat up other wanderers, and some sub-bosses, with the final aim of challenging three bosses and opening a gate to what I presume is the final challenge. Other players roam around, journey style, and you co-op everything bar the bosses, or duel (there's also dedicated PvP).

Combat is kinda class based: one can parry, one can dodge moves god hand style (everyone has a regular dodge), the third can absorb hits and regain health. Everything is stance based and you'll usually have 4 combos mapped to stances, as well as alternative single moves that you can use in certain stances.

The twist is that you can build your own deck of moves from techniques you learn. Fighting opponents lets you learn their skills: blocking and dodging earns you XP for that move, defeating enemies gives you bonuses to that, and eventually you can unlock new techniques.

You build your deck to make combo strings. Each move lands you in a different stance, and dictates what alternative moves you can use in that stance: for example a light jab that lands you in front left can only let you use the alternative move in the front left stance, whereas one that lands you in front right lets you use the alternative from that slot. Alternatives tend to be heavier attacks and can be fired off at any point during a combo as long as your in motion stance is correct. It's very hard to visualise but it basically means you can build 4 bread and butter combos that reset quite simply, and you can use alternative moves to either return you to the start of a loop or shift you to a new combo. This is crazily all done with 2 buttons, although you can change stance manually if you wish.

Even in my limited time i'm PvP I have seen some amazing combo chains, and have had then joy of predicting hits to sidestep or duck them, following up wth my own chains. The lack of a traditional fighting game rigidity is interesting because it means you have to read your opponent rather than rely on a knowledge of their move set. It's really slick and feels great when you start getting a hang of it, as you are building your own combos rather than learning weird links that exist seemingly arbitrarily. Everything flows, like a dance.

There are various things that complicate matters such as tension, a power that builds up and lets you cast certain magic like a slow heal, an AoE push, a move cancel, and a ground pound, plus there are weapons (with their own decks) that you can charge up to username short bursts in PvP.

The main issue is of course, the scope. The combat system in this game is nothing short of genius. The limitations of the developer's via team size and cash cripple a lot of it though. The actually playing space is small, and although full of interesting cramped spaces and fighting arenas full of drops and strange obstacles to work around, your journey feels a little aimless. The Destiny comparison I brought feels relevant because teaming up with others ad hoc style to run around beating up mobs is great, and I would love to see the same system expanded over a great, more livable world. The core system here is inventive and novel and in terms of ambition far outshines the sawn of corners of a lot of AAA games, it's just such a shame it has to be limited by design. Easily the best game this year that only a fraction of people will end up playing.

Is @Brooks all up in it?

Nope, I'm sort of underwhelmed by the character design, though it's nice to see a lot of God Hand's DNA up in a videogame again.

I idly wonder if framedata charts are already being shared around what it can claim as its community.

Expectation is that the list of viable attacks will be whittled down pretty quickly if this catches on, which sort of negates the value of a customisable moveset.

revelthedog wrote:

Currently playing Hellblade and still mucking around with a mixture of just cause 3 and Nier Automata. Tried elite dangerous for a bit and managed to completely hate it in the time I was on it.

I'm still knocking around JC3. Is there no missions?