GraniteFraggle

For me it's been Stalker 2. Just like it's been all of this week. Quite surprised we haven't seen the review here yet, but it really is quite exceptional. Running on a base PS5. It's buttery smooth. I've had one crash in 40 odd hours of play. I haven't really noticed any bugs. I did have a dead enemy clipping a wall last night. Again, that's the first time in 40 odd hours. It looks stunning. The gunplay is superb. The inventory management took a little bit of fiddling to work out as games don't come with any manuals these days, but I'm really, really loving it. In fact, it's fast become my favourite non-soulsborne game and I can see myself replaying this eventually I say eventually because it's huge. The AI is great and I've had some really enjoyable gun fights.

Playing it on version 1.7 which TBF is what it installed with on a base PS5. Silky smooth performance wise (looks gorgeous btw). No problems yet & thoroughly enjoying it.

Isn't this a weird Saudi funded e-sportswashing title? I'm sure there's some really dodgy stories regarding how it's dev costs were met.

Bloodborne 2.

Nope. I love Halo - I bought an Xbox on launch night to play it & lost goodness how many hours playing it coop. This looks brilliant BUT I won't be buying it?
Why?

"Microsoft partners with the apartheid regime of Israel and its prison system. It provides the Israeli military with Azure cloud and AI services that are central to accelerating Israel’s genocide of 2.3 million Palestinians in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip".

So for me, I'm boycotting MS and yep, this includes Halo

Bloodborne 2. Or a continuation of that setting.

It's the only way Sony will be able to shift any PS6's at launch.

You're in the know, right?

After Returnal I'm super stoked for Saros. As brilliant as Returnal was, I'm hoping they've listened to feedback & Saros will be pretty much perfect.

Power Saving mode sounds like a pointless bit of virtue signalling box ticking (Nd I say this as an eco-warrior hippy). Has a definite scent of getting PS5 owners to bets test again! The only way I can see it being of any use to owners is if it's available for games (say Dig Dug) which require very little oomph to run. I very much doubt that such games will be implementing it.

Where's the Ravnos clan? Ah I get it .... They're the clan behind the game! Makes perfect sense!

Instead of paywalling stuff, just make a decent VTM game. We've been waiting years & too many awful uses of the license to bother with this.

I couldn't give a flying whatever for Helldivers but let's hope we get ODST on PS5. Probably up there with the original for me & I'd love to play it again

Really enjoyed the demo, runs smoothly on base PS5, looks lovely. Plenty of colour, movement & surprising amounts of detail (rabbits other little creatures) running round. Leaves moving in wind, fireflies, birds, nice use of ambient sound. All good. Shortcuts open up, areas linked together nicely. Really wouldn't say it looked rough for me at all. Not stuttering bugs or crashes or clipping.

Forging weapons & working out the balance that suits how you play works. The combat for me feels quite different to soulslikes - weighty & once you get into dodging/partying I found myself really enjoying it. Loved the Troll fight - either lopping off arm or blinding it once it was stunned. It's also great how you have tommabage sharpness, stance (shabby or flashy). Spent about 3 1/² hours rinsing the demo & given everything I'd say I'll easily get £44 of play out of it. So yeh ordered. I'm a sucker for 3rf person action games.

Compared to Khazan the levels feel more dynamic & varied plus polished. I got maybe 60 hours out of that before I lost interest (dragon boss) to give you an idea.

Should have finished CE33 by then, had an hour on Doom & while I'd love to see Doom 2 running on ID tech 8 its not for me. Nice surprise

I did wonder if it dropped on the date it did to try and steal some sales from the vastly superior Clair Obscur. Whole I'm sure there's some fun to be had further down the line after updates and a much more reasonable price, you'd have to be mad to sink £50 on this when there's a much better new IP out that deserves support.

What's camera acceleration? Frame rate was fine - except for when I was using the minigun - as it's the demo I can let that slide until I find out if it's fixed in the full game. What definitely needs fixing is being able to remap control buttons. Dodge is impossible to use in combat as it currently sits. Gameplay loop is fun,gunplay satisfying - we could do with a few more single player FPSs. Provided they fix the above I think it's worth a look but I've got concerns about the length especially with the new Doom so close on its heels.

Played It Takes Two on the Switch & despite the slow down & lower resolution (not to mention the awful characters - that little girl deserves so much better) we loved it. Now have it on PS5 so we'll do another play though at some point. Downloaded last night and VERY much looking forward to it tonight!

Sweet lord but this game was terrible.

I remember seeing the promotional videos & hype for it - the setting, werewolves everything sounded like it would be right up my street. Pre-order GET! Quickly returned to Amazon for a full refund. My memory is sketchy now but I remember QTE hell, awful combat, linear as as tightrope & shallow as a puddle in death valley. I've had more fun taking my own stitches out.

A real shame for the studio that it turns out it that it had a few plasters applied & rushed out as the concept was brilliant.

@Ravix I get that - I based my initial reactions from watching the gameplay footage that was released. I'd love a demo that's for sure (but a rarity these days) and of course will wait until the game is patched.I've only just started Cyberpunk 2077 - and I'm loving it, its a different game to the mess that was released. I like to be a late adopter & preferably try things out first.

@Smackosynthesis Nice to see there's a fellow one out there! Rapier & axe for me - depending on sparring partner (there's not many axe fans about). Always love how surprised people are at the weight & size of a real rapier.

The combat was one of things that had me initially champing at bit. Happy to get hands and be proved wrong! The saviour scnapps just seems like a totally unnecessary and superfluous mechanic though.

There's no doubt as effective piece of simulation this is going to be impressive - my interest was piqued but then qickly waned when I first saw the gameplay video. The "humour" (digging around in *****) was purile to say the least and I could barely stomach that part never mind a whole game of it.

The combat as well looks poorly implemented - too complex for players sued to Elden Ring/The Witcher 3 & not realistic enough for the HEMA nerds amongst us. Its looks like they've developed a rich, detailed sandbox with (in comparison to the aforementioned games) little to do. Maybe its being spoiled with rich fantasy worlds with a diverse set of opponents, the extra depth of magic or just a poor choice of gameplay to show but it looks dull.

Plus having to find an item in order to access the ability to save? Big nope from me.