J2theEzzo

@nomither6 I think you'll be able to add Highguard to that list, too!

This seems like it's going to flop. Is Hollywood at such a nadir of creativity, that they have to keep throwing ill-fitting scripts at videogames, or are they just trying to cash in some of the industry's money? I am nothing but sceptical and cynical!

@Propaperpusher 😂 Have to go around harvesting tears from the torture chamber you built, to get your friendship level with pinhead up, before he let's you try the puzzle!

Cor, looks like poor Cal Kestis found himself transported further than a galaxy far far away! 😉

@PuppetMaster That's true. I'll be curious to see how large the roster gets, and who they choose to fill it with. As you say, quite a diverse mix to pick from!

@Simu001 I remember that secret dragon boss, he was a pain, for sure! It's not that guy... wouldn't want to spoil it, but there's basically a hidden level in every level, bar one, and each awards an item that massively helps with certain bosses or navigating areas. But if it isn't for you, then fair enough! I'm a big souls' fan, and also massively struggled with Sekiro at points, so Ive used Wukong as practice to kinda psyche me up for playing it again.

I guess they're a lot more restrictive in that you're forced to play it a certain way, and if it doesn't quite gel, then there's little wiggle room.

@LogicStrikesAgain I guess I would question how many of the swathes of Fortnite players have played, or especially beaten, either (or both!) of the Horizon games. It would probably be a niche selection, and just as likely, this site is more likely filled with people who did play Horizon over Fortnite. Stands to reason, the mainstream audience, who do buy into the popularity and opinion of those GaaS titles you mentioned, are not representing the smaller club of people who actually consider themselves as gamers, and realitically play more than 1 or 2 titles a year.

@charliecarrot You win the prize for summing it up concisely. It's amazing that the first comment here can apparently illustrate the issue in a way that a boardroom full of professional developers and executives can't. Oh wait... not surprising.

@Simu001 Did you find the plantain fan in the secret level? It's a big help for that boss! You also unlock the ability to upgrade weapons and armour, I think in the next chapter, which helps a lot with making viable builds from the equipment you get. New game plus isnt necessary, but I think it's basically the 'true' ending to do it, when you have more skills and better gear, as the whole thing is about cycles.

@PuppetMaster That's true, but Im a little dubious once the 'tier list's start dropping, that mostly you'll end up seeing teams of the similar / same 3 or 4 character compositions. That said, it remains to be seen how well they'll actually manage to diversify every character at launch, when so far, we only have these few to go by. Some characters might start to feel more like palette swaps, but we'll see.

@SoulChimera Just gotta really get into a rhythm with it. I think, by time I managed it, I wasnt even watching the screen, so much as just trying to internalise the count of when to push / hold buttons.

@StitchJones I did get pretty annoyed by that a few times - in the midst of a boss fights, trying to quaff a potion, and it wouldn't always register the button press. I think they've kinda patched it to be better now, but it was a problem with the ai image refresh, where it was inventing frames, and I think sometimes your button presses would get lost when it happened.

@Simu001 You definitely power up. In fact, by comparison, New Game + practically becomes easy mode, with how much stronger you are than most all the bosses, eith few exceptions. And it does have a sort of effective system, in seeing through enemy attacks. It's tricky to get the hang of it, but once you master all 3 staff styles and pick up on when the right time is to use the triangle attacks, I think it plays very well, and is as satisfying as it looks.

I personally couldnt put it down, and immediately played it through a second time after beating it. Plus, the secret boss fight for the hidden ending is just too good!

Yaoguai kitchen, then?

@rachetmarvel FighterZ is 3v3 I believe, and I still very much enjoy it, for what it's worth, but agreed pretty much across the board with everything else you said. For a 4v4, 20 characters doesnt seem enough, and there looks to be not really so much depth in how you play, if every button is either an autocombo or assist...

I wonder if, after seeing how quickly 2XKO has crashed, they've had to double down on thinking about extra characters at launch and single player content. For a 4v4 fighter, 8 to 20 characters seems like it's going to get old real quick.

For one thing, the visuals looked nice, but the game felt laggy to play. Or like it only had 3 or 4 animation frames for every movement. Just a bit jarring.

Was keen on the idea of a good co-op tag fighter, but this doesn't seem to be it!

Please, give us another Asura's Wrath!

Cheapened the price to go with cheapening the trophies! 😘😜

@MrPeanutbutterz For sure. Super Meat Boy is hard by design; it's not quite my thing, so I won't bother with trying to beat it, let alone go for the trophies. But imagine if I felt so entitled to the platinum trophy, I used cheats that meant I'd never die, and beat the game... it's not really the same as actually improving and conquering the intentionally hard challenge, is it?

The thing is, unlike Sekiro, or SMB, you can beat FF7 on any difficulty, using cheats or not, and see the end of the game- the extra challenges don't add anything; it's all for self satisfaction. Not so with the former, where the ending is locked behind getting good at the game and struggling through, without cheats.

So, are people suggesting Sekiro should give everyone cheats so that they can beat the game's hardest (optional) challenges too? Because they deserve the plat just as much as you, right - even if the game is already too hard for them?

@danzoEX But why do you feel the need to chase the plat at all, if the challenge is too much to claim it without the assistance? Can't you accept that if something is too much, then maybe it isnt for you, rather than to feel that you need the trophy, and so must use "cheats" to get it?

To be honest, knowing anyone can easily get the game's plat without effort just puts me off even trying!

@MrPeanutbutterz I'm with you on this; accessibility to play a game that you struggle with, is a whole other point to having accessibility options that enable you to complete an intentionally difficult extra challenge, so you can feel you completed it, without having put in the hard work.

To be honest, I don't think it's a problem that certain challenges are too difficult for the average gamer; they're there to test the people who want to challenge themselves and who play at a higher level. Having a bunch of tools to take away that challenge just means the reward afterwards is worthless.

Case in point- who's gonna beat DMC 5's hell mode but the most skilled and driven players? Make it so you have infinite health, and it'd be a pointless addition to the game. Imagine Sekiro, or Sifu, awarding plats for beating the game if you could turn on infinite health. It cheapens the challenge, and the reward with it.

I got the plat for Remake without assistance, and shall attempt to do the same with Rebirth, eventually. It's not so much all the vr missions I despise, as the piano mini game that gets me. 😬

Character design = bad.
Hero shooter type pve with overpowered abilities, instead of tactical, horizon-like shooting = bad.

It shouldn't be hard to make a good pve coop horizon game, but instead of making it like, you know, Horizon, they're making it into some Marvel Rivals by way of Nightreign mashup, that's not what people were expecting, or hoping for.

So it's Horizon: Nightreign, basically? Kinda left it a bit late to maximise interest, now this seems like just another pve multiplayer game amongst a recent slew of similar titles.

And that art style is totally whack. All the characters look so unappealing, except for Samuel L Jackson.

Also looks like combat is less about precision and more like a hero shooter, with timed abilities? Definitely not the way to go, in my opinion.

I got a little tired of the formula, after getting plats for all 3 (Nioh 1, 2 and Wo Long)... but, well, maybe I'll have to just try that demo and see if it hooks me!

Bought KC a long time ago for a spare few quid in a sale, and only played it briefly. This would be a nice reason to jump back in and finish it off/ start it proper.

@MrPeanutbutterz Haha, I'm glad I'm not the only one with a smidgen of outrage about their inaccurate marsupial depiction!

But agreed - life-like accuracy was never quite a Tekken strong point.

@PuppetMaster Everyone needs a little Bob in their life 🥹

@FullMetalWesker Good shout! I hadn't realised the 'pouch' was only in the shorts. Seems it's a double Roger combo!

@PuppetMaster I didn't ask, but I do like Bob. One of my friends also likes to pull him out as a secret card

@LifeGirl Yeah, I know Roger Jr is the joey - just thought the "mama" roo looked awful buff, with pecs and all, so didn't think it was the case - but obviously, a male would have no pouch... I think!

@MrPeanutbutterz Would have been nice to get Alex, instead of Roger Jr, in Tekken also.

And I question, do male Kangaroos even have a pouch?

@shoeses Ah, is that so! I actually don't remember the twins, off the top of my head... or the robot, for that matter! 😅

I'd be down for playing as a 2-in-1 character! Broforce managed it, with the Boondock bros, but thats a relatively more rudimentary pixel shooter that absolutely embraces the chaos.

Was he not one of Ramona's 7 evil ex boyfriends? Matthew, that is, not the robot.
Edit: actually, so are half the characters...

Characters and the story set up dont really strike me as being as good as the first (having 4 people play as the band and actually jamming was a cool idea), but if the gameplay is solid, I'll give it a look!

I thought they were shutting down the PS4's offerings with Plus? Glad they haven't yet, as AC7 is really the only thing I'm interested in here!

Still no cross platform play though!

Will be happy to jump back in on this; got the plat within the first week and havent had a reason to pick it up since. Waiting to be able to play it with my friends on PC...

I never much played Killer Instinct, but this is looking to have a very similar "tug-of-war" type gameplay, where it seems it's basically one person launches a combo and tries to chain as many hits as possible, while the other is stuck with no escape. Combo ends, then you just attempt to combo and keep your opponent locked in, ad infinitum. Seems a bit boring to me...

@Reeneman Ah, I wasnt being so serious. I used to enjoy 'Fight Night', but just wanted to make a crap boxing-related pun 🤷

Time to throw in the towel on my subscription... 😉

Queen's Blood was alright, but I think I prefer the mythically obtuse tetra master.

Also think Gwent is still my favourite of all the RPG card games, but the actual Witcher version, not the standalone/ spin-offs.

Had the first game when I was a kid and loved it! Like a 3d SoR. Might have been a little basic, by today's expectations, but I remember it being good at the time.

Is his head meant to look like a sperm cell or something?

@JDINCINERATOR I assume you mean the G-man, and not Benicio? 😂

Had the demo of this on ps1 and was very into it, despite not ususally being a fan of sports games. Bought a kind of similar arcadey 'intergalactic basketball' game, where you played as teams of 2 against aliens, and mermen, etc. Using special abilities to dribble down the line, or score trick shots for extra points. I always played as the werewolves... sounds like a fever dream, now.

@Scottyy Angelina will always be the best (live action) Lara.

This... is sounding like it's going to be a hot serving of typical dumb TV tripe to me, but I'm always cynical of these videogame adaptations, until proven otherwise.

@kyleforrester87 Yeah, that's fair. One's gotta pick and choose their battles, as there's so much to shout about really. I can't say I'm a vanguard of the anti- AI movement really, but I think it's worth being a little cautionary about new things before they totally take over. Add to that that we really don't know what to expect once the dust has settled!

@somnambulance Yeah, of course. Admittedly, as said somewhere above (or below?) I'm being hyperbolic about it. I think most technologies can positively promote independent learning, or creative responses, when used reasonably/ responsibly. I suppose I am suggesting that I think there's a greater number of people using it for reasons that don't align with growth and development, but rather as a shorthand for doing the work to begin with, but again, it's just a point of view!

@kyleforrester87 Hyperbole is my bread and butter pudding. 😉

But for sure, and in following up, I tried to make less biased comment, not denying it has applicable advantages. In many ways, social media also has many advantages for levelling the playing field and allowing those who have access to the technology to make a living, as by generating monetised content and so on. But I think it's fair to suppose that 'most' people don't use social media in that capacity, (and to be honest, I'm not really a fan of the whole influencer culture, in any case!). So, while technology has the capacity to be a great equaliser, I tend to feel it really just deepens divisions and widens economic gaps; those who already have generally having greater access, or advantage, to build on that and accrue greater wealth, while impoverished people see less success. (And possibly greater exploitation through increasing demand for mineral reserves...)

So, I have a bit of a negative stance on the whole thing. It isn't inherently 'evil', of course - but I think it's potentially doing more harm for a greater number of people than it is good right now. But what do I know 🤷

@kyleforrester87 I won't deny that there's practical uses, and for finding out information, or trying to get a quick bit of info as to the proper technical steps to take with work all makes sense. Similarly, if attempting a creative project and there's something I'm unsure of, I'm not against referring to chat, or google, (essentially the same thing?) to make a brief enquiry. (I maybe wouldn't refer to it in place of a therapist, but to each their own!)

The problem, as I see it, is when people just use it without taking the steps to think for themselves. Not to learn, but to replace learning. I.e., asking for the best method to solve a problem, I have no qualms with, but mostly, its application is to just solve the puzzle, (or create the work) so people don't have to do the work directly, and I fear that'll only lead to diminishing quality / intelligence / critical thought.