Mintie

I got my Nioh 3 Platinum earlier in the week so now I am romping through NG+! Got my farming build almost sorted, got some the pieces together for a boss melting build. I do need to figure out what my cut off point is, when I'll unravel Nioh 3 from around my heart and move on... but it isn't this weekend.

I'll also be playing some more Guild Wars Reforged with the lads.

I am so very tempted to pick up RE9, but I still have crimbo games to get through!

The latest trailer gave off massive sci-fi horror vibes, and the renewed artstyle is sweet... but isn't it just going to be an extraction shooter with virtually no story?

Nioh 3, almost in Act 3 and loving every second of it.

I'm also going to be doing some Guild Wars Reforged with chums!

But mostly just Nioh-ing.

That was ridiculously cute, Hopefully the Jenny English Banger Train continues!

One more... this came to me like a brick lobbed by God... Jurassic Park Survivor/survival/whatever... Will finally show something that wasn't already in the first and only trailer.

@UltimateOtaku91 MH Wilds expansion is a good shout.

@LiamCroft, @NieR_Dark all the linear/blackbox missions are replayable from the Shrines through the Battle Scroll, you also get some side missions that you can load into from the same menu.

My reaction is complicated.

It isn't what I want as a Horizon fan, I want what comes next for Aloy and the gang, I want the bonkers conclusion that should be following HFW...

At the same time, there is enough room in the IP for things like this, experiments that could be fun and that explore the world through a different lens. Would I rather have something closer to Monster Hunter with custom avatars? Yes, absolutely!

But I don't hate the more cartoony art style, I love that the Heroes have very different silhouettes, the Machines redesigns are exceedingly clean... but I am going to miss blasting away the armour plating as the destructions looks simplified.

I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic even though i think the internet is going to crucify them.

@SoulsBourne128 That... wouldn't take much.

Bought, but I'm saving it for my post Nioh 3 game, something very very different as a palate cleanser before I jump into AC Shadows.

I've been meaning to pick up Ace Combat 7 for YEARS, but something always came along to distract me! This is the fign for me to finally get around to it.

Having finished all the Nioh 3 demo content I am now back on with Monster Hunter Wilds and trying to bring down Omega... I need a more suitable weapon I think so I'll probably aim to crafter a Thunder Switch Axe.

I'm also very tempted to pick up Cairn.

@NieR_Dark I hit level 35 and respecc'd so all my stats are at 10... but it doesn't seem to have a cap except for the exponentially larger amounts of Amrita needed to level making it harder and harder to get those gains... The zone you have partial access to has a higher level recommendation of 36 (I think) in one of its unreachable subzones. I get the sense that the open fields might make it a lil easy to get OP accidentally.

@NieR_Dark I've sunk 12hrs in, done everything you can do and got myself to a nice comfortable stage level and gear-wise. I cannot wait for actual launch.

I'm 80% sold on it, I'd love a demo to get me the rest of the way

I recently picked it back up and I am really enjoying it.

I'm also REALLY digging having a voiced Hunter who is both gentle and a professional.

I hope we get a really cracking expansion announced soon.

My only gripe is that it is a weirdly ugly game compared to Rise and World.

@JB_Whiting I finally remembered to order my Nioh 3 copy (£50 from TGC, bargain!) and I cannot wait. I'll probably pick up CV2 later in the year.

I've put in a few hours... It's aggressively okay and there is potential for improvement. My main gripe, and it seems a common one, is that 3v3 can make the map feel very empty... It almost feels like there should be mobs to kill like in a MOBA but instead you have a weird mining thing to do.

@KundaliniRising333 you can filter out the junk in the settings.

But the diablo like loot system is a core pillar of Nioh, the making a build and searching for the perfect gear for that build is half the fun.

@Stevemalkpus it's doing the pots, washing up, sticking used cups and the like in the sink and giving them a thorough cleaning.

That looks awful, almost like DE-master, where the heck is the lighting??? I'm off to go do the pots in the hope some monotony will erase this from my mind.

This looks to have my beloved Eurojank and at that price how can I say no? It's a shame they felt the need to cancel the other version but if it means they can put a little extra into the version I'll be playing then it is all good.

I think its the music but something is giving me NieR/Stellar Blade vibes. If they can get the parry timing in the sweet spot to pair with that juicy cling-cling-clang it'll delivery the dopamine hit I desire from combat in games.

Everything about this game so far does it for me.

I am weirdly excited to give this a go... Which puzzles even myself because oh boy does it look generic and not at all a 'new breed' of anything. The silence is deafening though, we're like a week away and the only thing we've seen is that trailer.

[Edit... 4 days from launch... I just went on the website and there is no info at all other than a launch count of sorts]

She looks fantastic, she also have the right kinda voice, it'll be interesting to see how well she act as Lara

@nessisonett that tends to happen when you do fairly authentic live action things.

There was so much potential, but they seemingly had very little in place to keep momentum going, whether that was from Bioware misunderstanding what it takes to make Live Service works or EA meddling... Or, more likely, a fair mixture of both.

I loved my time with Anthem around launch, everything from gameplay, world and even the story hooked me enough to want the continuation of the story, the next map... but obviously that never came to be.

In an alternate universe Anthem got its No Man's Sky arc, the 2.0 release came out, the world expanded and people gave it the chance to shine. I reckon if it was released a few years ago with a better plan in place and an understanding what it takes to run a Live game things would be different.

But, man, am I sad it never got to soar.

I find myself wondering how much Hulst's inability to get stuff done is down to resources committed before he picked up the baton? Saying that he remained firmly in trend-chasing mode from the start. I wonder if he wishes he'd stayed with Guerrilla?

My prediction is we finally see what projects the victims of the GaaS push are now working on... Including my beloved BluePoint

I am so tempted to get GB,OG...

Having a chill weekend romping through Diablo IV's latest season with a chum, we haven't had a lot of time online at the same time the last few months so Lootin' n Chunterin' for us.

Honestly, using it with your own data sets is fine, I mean its still unnecessary and even trained using specific images it'll still mess up constantly, but it is better than using the external data sets loaded with stolen work.

But genAI has no place in concept art creation, ever, it undermines the actual purpose of concept art. How can you possibly think you're making something original if your concepts are just amalgamations of other peoples work? I'm glad they're pulling away from that.

Knowing a few Sophies I wonder what they've done to deserve raiding.

@Jammer I wonder when we'll actually see something from JP Survival. They pushed out some vids a while back that only featured footage from the original trailer.

This looks delightful!

Very interested in seeing more.

@Oram77 I feel bad for them to a degree, but man making Generic Hero Shoot #37 and trying to claim it'll be a new breed was just the worst thing they could've done.

The funny thing is that if it had been announced mid-show it would've come across as a possibly neat distraction for a month... instead almost everyone instantly despised it for not being The Big Hype Moment.

I'm going to give it a go, because a) it's free and b) if I'm going to dunk on it, I might as well be fair to it.

It is 2027 and you are stuck in Tomb Raider Catalyst when Lara slowly turns to the camera and looks you dead in the eye.

"So, Brian, I see you and Gemma are having problems in the bedroom. Here's what you want to do..."

Somewhere deep in Sony HQ the klaxon sounds as Lara advices another man to gift his wife an Aztec Death Whistle to liven up their intimacy.

Finish the current PS5 backlog (including crimbo '25 games)

• Cronos - The New Dawn
• AC Shadows
• Monster Hunter Wilds
• Star Wars Outlaws (Currently playing)
• Guardians of The Galaxy
• Silent Hill 2 (one playthrough done, one to go)
• Dragon's Dogma 2

On PC I plan to make a master list of all of the smaller games that have slipped through the cracks and rolling a random number to determine which game get played next with the understanding that if it doesn't click I don't waste time trying to force it... I may end up flushing a lot of the PC backlog this year.

Purchasing new stuff-wise, I'll be limiting my new buys to games i REALLY need, the first of those is coming up fast with Nioh 3!

@Fiendish-Beaver Got it for crimbo and really looking forward to jumping in once i finish the current thing (SW Outlaws)

My top 4 that's currently occupying my brain space

1) Nioh 3
2) Tomb Raider
3) Control Resonant
4) Pragmata

There are so many more, plus the never ending backlog... so many games, too many games...

@Mintie When I'm specifically playing with friends I look up build guides for whatever class I'm rolling so I don't spend so much time umm-ing and ahh-ing over skills and stuff. But when I'm playing as a solo class I make the build up as I go and experiment, it's inefficient and can lead to what you experienced with randomly getting obliterated, but its fun when a piece of gear makes something randomly work in my favour.

Star Wars Outlaw, I'm really digging Kay and Nyx's little adventure so far and I look forward to where it goes.

I'm also reinstalling Diablob IV to play with chums.

Happy New Years folks.

We still know next to nothing about Townfall... Goes to do a quick bit of googling other than the dev is No Code renamed and No Code made an absolute banger with Observation.

My hope is that it's a bit P.T like, it'll be smaller scale and very different to the usual Silent Hill experience.

Can't wait to not buy another Level-5 game. Sod the AI loving dimwits.

Got Star Wars Outlaws as one of my crimbo games and now I am having a blast with Kay and Nyx, still early but so far, so good.

Also got AC Shadows and Cronos. Good times ahead.

(I'll also be doing more Monster Hunter Wilds)

Monster Hunter Wilds on't PS5 and a lil Honkai Star Rail because I'm still not caught up.

@themightyant for me it was similar to most Bethesda games - Solid gaming comfort food, like a fairly cheap plate of bangers and mash.

Small team, small budget... and it depends on when a publisher gets involved and who the publisher is and how they contribute.

E33 is an indie, but it is also AA.

My brain sees a t-pose and instantly growls "broken game" at me... Even when it's supposed to be a feature.

Jesus wept! Next year is so gods damned stacked.

@AndyKazama chasing the high of Nioh 2 has made it so very hard to love other similar games. With Wo Long and RoTR they just felt like they were missing something. I'm hopeful for Nioh 3 but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried as well.

I am STILL playing catch-up with Honkers!

If Royal mail pull their finger out I have a cheap copy of Monster Hunter Wilds for PS5 on the way seeing as the PC version still runs like ass on my PC, so if that arrives I'll be turning some not-dinos into some fancy pants!