Eric wrote:

I'll have to dig out your list Moot. I don't get through many games so it's nice to do one in a sitting.

It's not even accurate any more, I'd have Statik in the 10 for a start.  2017 was genuinely the greatest ever gaming year imo, especially if you count Hollow Knight.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Last night after 42 hours and a few incredibly sweaty boss fights, I beat Sekiro. It’s absolutely my favourite From game, for a few reasons. Mainly, it never felt tedious. Boss runs are largely a thing of the past, because it isn’t really a Souls game. It’s an action game reminiscent of the Souls series, but first and foremost it is it’s own thigh. A sprawling, cinematic action game that plays homage to Japan’s rich cultural history of film, folklore and history. There are bits in the game that feel right out of the chambara films that inspired it. I faced a foe and we both ran perpendicular to each other, swords drawn, inching close until we flashed under the moonlight. I took part in spiritual rituals, shared Sake with wise old men, swore an oath, tore through swathes of foot troops, overcame insurmountable beats, explored the occult - simply put it is a sweeping journey through multiple cultural touch stones and it carries them all off superbly.

The combat is such a massive step up from the Souls games and it’s seriously impressive. As much as i’ve enjoyed those games in the past, I’ve found the fairness of the systems dubious. Enemy attacks were frequently wonky with tracking and hitboxes, occasionally the AI seemed overturned and I rarely felt like I had the tools to fully deal with anything. Sekiro does away with all that and makes you a walking death dealer. Wolf is an immovable object, able to deflect the most gargantuan of blows without so much as a grunt and a short stagger. The game asks, demands that you as a Shinobi. You start every fight on the defensive, taking note of their attacks and learning how to counter them, then you overwhelm them with force. The poise system rewards you for being aggressive, exchanging rhythmic chains of attacks and deflections until you break their posture, allowing you to insantly kill them with a death blow. The pace is again, cinematic, with the fights ebbing and flowing betweendesperate flurries and slow considered strafing as you feel each other out. There’s no co-op because it would rob the game of its reason for existing. Shinobi don’t fight fair, they use tools and aggression to smother their opponents, but they’re loners. Wolf stalks alone, picking off stragglers, and cutting the heads off smug generals with impunity.

There’s a staggering variety of enemies to fight and tools and abilities to use, but it’s also streamlined. It’s a spectacle fight stripped down to its core essence, much like Revengeance was, but it feels much more accomplished, far more focussed. Some bosses took me three hours at a time but I rarely felt frustrated or annoyed. Instead there was a constant feeling of growth, of learning, that I knew I could do the fight without relying on reviving myself. Sometimes I needed to use a different tool, or take a new approach, but there was always a way to progress. Most of my victories cane from near perfect attempts st the fight, where I turned my opponents own force and momentum back at itself. There were times when bosses that had demolished me for hours turned up again, and I calmly dispatched them without blinking.

Sekiro is a total triumph. The best thing a game can do is live up to the promise it set out - it’s why Thumper and Slay the Spirr are so wonderful - and Sekiro fully lives up to its promise and then some. It’s brutally fair, a punishing teacher, but it leaves you feeling accomplished in a way few other games do. There’s no grinding for stats, there’s no cheap weapon upgrades, no shortcuts. It’s just you, a sword, and your persistence. It’s the best game From have ever made, and leaves its competitors in the dust.

[10]

Good write up, as a big fan of Japanese cinema, I’m loving the setting. I have felt a couple of bosses slightly tedious personally, but that’s a small complaint so far in a largely near perfect game (so far).

I hate being at work when I wanna play this. And I also hate depriving myself of sleep to play it. But that’s the way it has to be nowadays for me.

And a touch of spite.

Halo 3 Legendary = seriously, how many headshots to kill elite (presumably) brutes!

Inventory and lease signing on my very own flat. Woo!

6 months but rolling from then on. It’s owned by these guys:

http://www.thejohnroan.greenwich.sch.uk/285/the-john-roan-foundation

So I don’t expect that they’ll suddenly decide to sell it out from under me.

Night in the Woods

I think. I really want to give it another run through, but worry it won't be as good as the first run. I did almost everything I could in my first run, so there won't be as much interaction with characters on a second run (I guess I could do that, but it's a pretty slow game).

Was a MaeBae run in the end, stuck together | don't suck together. Really loved their story.

It's a beautiful game, it's incredibly well written. Has everything, and things never feel forced or over explained. It touches on a lot of growing into an adult and mental health issues, with a nice little story as a background. The freedom you feel when jumping around on telephone lines, the emptiness and calmness you feel when sitting on a roof or the ledge of a bridge, the fun of sharing a pizza with friends, the claustrophobic feelings in dreams, it all feels relatable and real.

Loved every bit of it.

Have already restarted it.

Didn't notice it the first time around, but you encounter some characters on your first day that (I think) come back later in the story again.

Appreciated how on the first two mornings your mom will say good morning from the kitchen, it's the game teaching you she will be there every day. Nice little detail, feels like a genuine mother thing. I went for a talk with her each morning in my first play through, and didn't remember that the first two were forced.

Hm, over halfway through?

Do you know for how long you've played? How long to beat has it between 8,5 and 11 hours I think, so that might give you an idea how much there's left.

It's a crafty one alright.

I just got this yesterday. Trying to block out da haterz

If I play it getting most of the flowers, say four per stage, will I still have to backtrack en route to the credits?

I feel like Reg is in the wrong thread.

Call yourself a completionist eh? Give ya head a wobble.