Silent Hill 2, I journaled my whole journey as I played so I'm currently translating it across into the games thread. I logged everything from each monster encounter, feelings and feedback as it happened, loot, each room, to constant ammo checks. Eventually I'll share some proper feedback, perhaps after my notes are up and complete. Some of it was hellish and deeply frustrating but the game as a whole was very special and it seems like my first Horror game didn't hold back either. I have to keep it short, it's easy to spoil the game and it's the kind of game people just have to experience for themselves and I'm glad I did.

@GirlVersusGame I’m really glad that it ended up as a net positive experience for you. Nicely done! I’ll look forward to some final summary thoughts. I’ve been following along as you’ve given instant reactions as you went along and I’d like to read how it all sums up for you, and where it lands in the grand scale of your gaming experiences. Maybe a top 20 game? Perhaps even a top 10? Does it soften your stance on horror to the point you may continue to dabble in the genre after spooky month is over? You still have a game or two or three on your list for the month so I wonder how SH2 will hold up to its peers as well

@LtSarge Nice thoughts on Well Dweller. I've picked it up as it sounds right up my street but what you've said is similar to what I've heard elsewhere. With a 12 hour play time though at least it doesn't overstay it's welcome.

@psmr That was quick, even by your standards I hope you're happy with the ending you got too. The DLC is amazing though and pretty massive. Heart of Stone has a fantastic central story but Blood and Wine is one of the best pieces of DLC ever. I love how the OTT nature of it all clashes with Geralt's personality and is some great tropes for the setting it has. It also has one of my favourite passages of gameplay in it. And when I go back to the game (hopefully) I will look to do it on Death March off the bat so fingers crossed it's not too much of a step up.

@GirlVersusGame And nice work on finishing Silent Hill 2. I know it's thought of as a bit of a classic but it's one I've never played. I've dabbled with the original way back when (maybe around the age of 12?) when it came out but generally horror games aren't my thing. That said, I did love Resident Evil 4 and Dead Space is another great one you should give a go!

As for myself, I finished Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles the other day.

FF:Tactics was a game I was aware of even back in the day but don't ever remember seeing it for sale anywhere. It's always been a bit of a sidestep in the series as it doesn't have an open world to explore but just has a world map to move around, with the tactical combat being the main crux of the game. It's still turn based but set on an isometric map so something more akin to XCOM than FF.

The combat is really cool and there is such an array of classes to choose from. There are a handful of unique characters that have special classes but you can still change them to generic ones as well. The benefit being that as well as your base attack, you can have two types of skills with their associated moves; the one from the class you're currently assigned to and one from another class. You can also unlock other abilities from classes, like dual wielding or increased movement, that you can assign too. That all means you can create a really unique and powerful team.

However, it's a lot of grinding to get your characters levelled up which became a chore. Big story set pieces can lock you into a sequence of battles that you either have to complete or completely redo if you need to back out and some boss fights are a real difficulty spike meaning you need to go off and grind and then redo all those fights. But it can then became too easy to beat the boss.

The story is pretty impressive but really convoluted so I lost off track of things and eventually just started skipping a lot of dialogue, particularly when characters suddenly decided to have a whole verbal standoff in the middle of a battle (especially annoying if you need to redo the fight).

The old school but cleaned up art style is nice and the music is solid and quite nostalgic but overall I was a little disappointed in the end.

@Thrillho I assure you that quick was the last thing it seemed 😅.

Yes I did like the ending (I liked the whole story tbh). Ciri was obviously a great through-line and the ending seemed both really fitting and sets her up for Witcher 4 perfectly. I loved how epic it all was once you and the crew finally catch up with the Wild Hunt. It’s just an exceptionally high quality product fair play and I now understand why so many people evangelise CD Project Red, they really are magicians.

So I’ve had a long day with the expansions today. I was probably up around 7am and just logged off now. Reason being, I’m eager to get my Death March run started but want some of the items and upgrades only available in the new content. Ngl there was an instant difficulty spike at the start of both, with Toad Prince on Hearts of Stone and the elemental wizard with soldiers on Blood & Wine. It did settle down a bit after those fights in fairness but it still felt a bit more balls-to-the-wall. I didn’t really do too much more of HoS, as I found myself travelling to Toussant… and just lost all track of time tbh. You’re right, it’s an amazing chunk of content. I’m not sure what specific part your referring to but I took part in the tournament which was great, earned the sword from the lady in the lake and the looked to get my master-crafted cat gear upgraded to Grandmaster… and holy **** was that expensive… in terms of in game cash AND time! I started with just under 40k and ran out’ve cash with two pieces still to do. I then spent the rest of my time doing the 15 knight errands as I figured that would be a great way to earn some coin and also collect some much needed crafting mats. I know this might annoy purists but this really played into my Ubisoft-checklist like penchant, particularly taking down the Hanse bases (they were great!).

All I have left to do now is get the max glyphword from HoS sorted and the new mutation thing sorted from B&W and then I’ll have my build set for ng+ Death March… so another day-ish I reckon.

As for your latest game, was a little surprised by how your experience with FF Tactics panned-out tbh. I know very little about the game in fairness… apart from how Colin Moriarty gushes over it on Sacred Symbols. With the exception of the Megaman games, its right up there for him. Nostalgia is a helluva drug though… and as you never played it back in the day, I guess that ‘joy-buff’ is absent for you (& probably most other people who are new to it I’d imagine). Now that you’re fine with that, what’s next up for you?

@Metonymy Ah, happy to hear about your experience with Keeper! The crazy visuals were enough for it to catch my attention when it came out, but when I watched a video on the game that covered the early parts, I was equally turned off. It just seemed rather monotonous and uninteresting, at least as a viewing experience. The fact that you're saying that's largely by design and the game goes some wild places after to justify it has reignited my interest in it. I'll have to keep this one in mind after all! I think we have a fairly similar taste in gaming as well, so your praise seems incredibly promising to me.

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@Werehog Agreed! Context is everything. I suppose I've just run into the flat, comic relief characters more often than I have the ones with something beneath the surface. It seems only like a good thing that they managed to strike the perfect balance with this character in particular! Another point for the game. As for Final Fantasy Type-0 Extraganza: the Second Coming vs. Sephiroth IV - Game of the Decade Edition Remaster Type-1 and its adddition demo content, thanks for the clarification that it was indeed mostly merged with the main game! The last thing I need filling up space in my brain is incorrect information alongside all the other useless stuff already stored in there. Did you know that Heather Gay went to France on her mission for the Mormon church? Let me know if and when you do track down and take the time to engage with the other media! I'd be interested to hear if it adds anything to your experience with it.

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@LtSarge Glad to hear that even with your caveats, you had a good time with Well Dweller in the end. My roommate also started and finished it in the time since I last responded to you, and his sentiments echoed yours. Hopefully this being a bad case of Metroidvania design might actually be a plus for me in terms of being a more accessible entry point in trying to get my feet wet in the genre. My roommate told me so at least, thinking it could be baby's perfect first Metroidvania. Let's see! I intend to start it when I finish my ongoing Zero Parades playthrough, so I'll get back to you on that one.

• Dredge for PS5

It was a lot of fun and rather short, I think I started it yesterday or the day before and it would have been even quicker had I not tarried as much and done all of that fishing. The story is really short and the guts of the content was in the fishing and those little side-quests. I like the vibe and the atmosphere, it was a slow start. Then with upgrades to my engine/rods/nets (and so on) the pace increased and so did my profits. I wouldn't call it a hard game, the map wasn't too big and focused a lot on visiting nearby islands (for reasons) fishing itself was fun, there was no combat, instead the idea was to avoid the nasties of the deep. I don't know if I'll bother with platinum, I kind of look at platinum now as time that could used to play a new game and I don't really want to do the whole 'catch every fish' thing. Either way it was an enjoyable game and a nice little bite-sized one for Spooky season. I'd definitely recommend it.

@Tjuz Thanks! I want to speak more about it but it really would rob the game of what makes it special. I look forward to reading your thoughts if/when you get around to playing it!

@GirlVersusGame Sounds like something I’d really enjoy. I adore these types of indie games. As much as I enjoy a big AAA release, it’s these smaller experiences that are the bread and butter of why I enjoy gaming so much. Added to the list!

Marvel’s Wolverine - Bit of an odd one for me. I ended up really enjoying this overall but I have to say that it’s hands-down the buggiest and most unpolished game I’ve ever played from Insomniac. Nothing game-breaking but I had a fairly consistent stream of scripting issues, clipping issues, enemies stuck in unreachable places, visual hiccups, audio miscues, input issues and just a variety of things where it felt like there was little to no care whatsoever from the development team (my favourite was the traffic that spawned right behind a blocked street and just drove right through the blockade as if I wouldn’t notice it). It does unfortunately give off a b-tier aura, not something I expect from a Sony first party release (or anything this linear that costs $300+ million). With that out of the way…

I had a lot of fun playing this. For me, the back half was much stronger than the front half, leaving my experience with the game on a real positive note. The combat, story and scenario design all come together in this back half in a way that just works better than what came before. Rather than pointing out a bunch of obviously mediocre aspects, here’s a simple list of the things the game does really well:

Performances: The cast is great, and everyone gives it their all. There is a lot of grunting, but it’s really good grunting.

Story: This is a classic X-Men story and in that it delivers the goods. Also, the villain is fantastic and I really liked how muddy the various relationships become by the end.

Combat: Though frustrating and one-note early on (if you don’t like parrying, stay away), it develops into something truly fun. The gauntlets (where you fight waves of enemies and choose modifiers between waves) are awesome.

Spectacle: Gets as epic as I’d imagine any Wolverine story to get. I also really enjoyed the environmental destruction.

Photo Mode: Unsurprisingly phenomenal (poor frame selection aside). Being able to hand light scenes is just the best.