MrPeanutbutterz

@Rich33 I dunno. Arkane/Microsoft's decision-making credibility came under fire for not cancelling Redfall.

@Rich33

would be tempted to show the current build to a few review outlets, with an explanation, before 'sweeping it under the rug' of a company reset.

For them to pull the plug entirely it was clearly a fundamentally broken/totally junk project.

No explanation necessary.

And nothing of merit was lost.

The protagonist from the first game has to be one of the most dour and dislikeable characters in all of gaming.

The second one has you playing a "haxzors lol" type, and then clubbing someone to death with a pool ball in a sock.

@graymamba I can't stand football, but sank thousands of hours into PES over the years.

@Pat_trick It's ***** great, thanks for asking.

Any more questions?

@Balaam_ It's a joy because... there's zero skill involved in it.

@Almost_Ghostly The drifting is some of the best I've seen in an arcade racer, and I've played most of them since the 1990s. It's skilled and nuanced as well. And you could see when the game went to PS Plus and the new people jumping in online, because they couldn't drift at all.

I've Platinumed WipEout Omega Collection and found the handling of HWU to be similarly detailed and tight. Granted you need to be using the best cars, but that holds true for a lot of games.

I was fine with the economy, it's a game about collecting and racing toy cars.

Rubberbanding has existed in racing games since the year dot. And it's OTT in Croswrolds at times.

Can't say I pay attention to user reviews at all, so you have me there. CrossWorlds felt like genuine trash to me.

(Thanks for having a conversation about differences of opinion without getting all "internet warrior" about it, BTW).

@PuppetMaster Yup, it's just hot air from a non-fan. There's a night and day difference between 5 and 6.

As an aside, I haven't played much in a long time, but think I'm back in for Alex. I mained him in Third Strike, and even for a bit in 5 (before I settled on, err, Meant lol).

Watching the story trailer, the game reminds us of both A Plague Tale: Innocence and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice – two clear influences here.

Now there's a sentence that ensures I will never install this game, even for free.

@Almost_Ghostly Interesting. I thought Crossworlds was a chaotic, RNG mess of a game. And even stripping that out, it doesn't handle as well as Sonic and Sega All-stars Racing Transformed (which is one of my all-time favourite racers).

HWU was just pure twitch arcade racing. No gimmicks. Just you, the track, and your skills (the "no gimmicks" remark is why I thought HWU2 was a step backwards)

Little more than PR fluff.

He left out the bit where he does exactly what Spencer/Nadella tells him to do, whether he likes it or not.

@nomither6 See @PuppetMaster's comment (#6) to you. And their point about how Alex has been changed in a big way with this iteration.

I'm also guessing that you don't actually play this game, because it plays very differently to SF5, and copy and pasting characters wouldn't work at a fundamental level due to the very different mechanics.

And even the characters themselves play very differently. I main Blanka with a side of E. Honda in this. I've been playing the series since SF2 in the arcades and barely picked these two before, let alone main them.

@BentIeyma Same. The first HWU game is the best arcade racer of the last five or so years for me. 10/10 game for me, and I 100%'d it on PS4, PS5, and Series X.

HWU2 felt like a few steps in the wrong direction, but I still 100%'d it once on PS5.

I'm about to sink some time into Far Cry 3 and Blood Dragon after their (free) 60FPS updates landed today.

Cheers, Ubi.

Rollerdrome is one of the best games of the last few years. I rarely do digital pre-orders, but saw one clip of it and pre-ordered it on the spot.

Roll7 got done dirty, royally so.

@GuttyYZ Same. Two classic albums, and a very spotty career after that.

@Pat_trick See RoomWithAMoose's reply to you, not my fault you're numb to it all/burying your head in the sand.

@GamingGod I'm getting years/decades ahead with the SEO hits! Or I'm a klutz.

@Pat_trick

What's happening in history right now is called a boring Monday.

I've a friend who lives in Minneapolis - I'll pass on their email address so you can tell them it's just a boring Monday there, shall I?

And I don't remember too many other times when the most dangerous member of NATO threatened to attack another. Care to refresh my memory?

I'll tell one of my Ukrainian friends their life is just another boring Monday later when I see them?

@Kraven Nothing close? I don't think there's going to be much to eclipse Rift Apart, Death Stranding 2, or Forbidden West.

@JamesLimited5990 Okay, the closest to Doomsday that we've ever been, which WW3 may as well be a metaphor for (and you can bet that the 2026 time will be closer to midnight than it is right now).

@Can-You-Believe-Sith Considering we're the closest we've ever been to it being a reality, this isn't particularly funny.

Would love a native PS5 app for Trials Rising. The loading times (even when installed to SSD) are brutal.

Hope they sort the deadzones out in this, found it kinda unplayable on PS4

@PuppetMaster Can confirm, as a a long-time KD fan, this 100% scratched the Katamari Damacy itch.

@ZeroE Just checked a trailer for it - lovely! Effectively art of rally x Expeditions...

I've had RE8 and Expeditions in my basket a few times over the last few months. Even went to buy a physical copy of Expeditions in store, but the sleeve on the shelf was a dummy and they had none left.

Played Art of Rally on the Series X, and it's a moody little game that I enjoyed for sure. Will revisit on this.

So yep, very happy (especially when I'm still only paying half price for Premium after being grandfathered into it at the start).

I'm hooked on Absolum. Haven't finished it properly yet, but I'm getting close. Karl is my favourite so far; the throw upgrade combined with the spinning pile driver makes him a dwarf that came right out of the WWE.

@Propaperpusher I got my first console in 1992, started gaming on my cousin's 2600 and C-64 a few years before that.

But thanks for calling me a youngling.

@Smithylfc2008 One is wanting to be awarded an ultimately meaningless participation trinket despite not being able to meet the necessary qualifying criteria and the other is wanting to be awarded an ultimately meaningless participation trinket despite not being able to meet the necessary qualifying criteria.

@Balaam_ Seek help.

@Smithylfc2008 That's like saying that I should still be able to get a finisher's medal for a marathon just because I want it, but I have an "accessibility issue" of keeling over with exhaustion about 30km in.

@Ashkorsair Hopefully.

Interestingly, Forza Horizon 5 did really well in Europe, hitting fourth place, but it could only manage 14th in North America.

I wonder is this down to the US being Xbox's best market, while it's effectively been dead in lots of Europe for a long while now.

@Northern_munkey I dunno man, feels like you're controlling boats, not an arcade racer.

Arcade racers to me need to handle like Burnout, Outrun 2006, WipEout, etc. Twitchy and precise. This is neither.

Plus that weight to handling model lacks the nuance of a proper sim-cade game like GT (I love the handling model in that series precisely because of the weight).

FH feels like it has neither and is a mushy, unsatisfying "in between".

Will this one actually have an engaging handling model and a satisfying cadence of progression? Probably not...

@Crimson_Ridley Oops yeah my bad! Guess I'm excited for RE9! 😁

@crossbit Thanks for the detailed answer, much appreciated.

That method of balancing sounds far more palatable to me and exactly what I was hoping for. I remember finally unlocking some weapon (genuinely over a year since I last booted it) and then the patch the day later nerfed in, which was a bridge too far for me.

Sounds like it might be worth dipping in for a look again (sure I still have it installed anyways).

@Steeleye25 Oh we don't mention the "B" word in my house, digital crack that it is, whoops!

Hope you get stuck into Absolum in a similar manner, it really is lovingly crafted game.

Have a similarly good one!

Art of Rally is a lovely little game. Played it on Xbox, so will be happy to try it out on PS5 (much prefer the ol' Dualsense).

Almost bought RE9 and Expeditions several times in the last few months (in fact RE9 is in my cart, but I bought Absolum instead).

On paper I enjoy the Yakuza games, but they do not respect the player's time.

How is the balance for the game these days? I played in the first six weeks but dropped off with all the chopping and changing.

@Steeleye25 I had a completely free day yesterday, the weather was dreary, so I said I'd play it for an hour or so and really give it some proper attention...

Six hours later I turned it off! My new game of 2025 (if I had played it then!).

@SMJ Yeah and I still need a plastic box to access the account to play those games.

@SMJ And if I don't buy the box to play them, they're worthless.

How is this even a conversation?

@SMJ and what is the software running on, exactly?

@SMJ And where do you think I've spent an easy five-figure sum of money on those games? Hint - begins with "P", ends with "laystation", precisely because I own one of their current plastic boxes.

@Scottyy Once you've finished the stages you can basically skip them and are handed a weapon relevant to the stage you're going to.

A run taking three to four hours for myself was perfect - I'm there for the tight Housemarque gameplay after all.

@datamonkey The pacing in Ragnarok was ass, the story limped to its conclusion, the puzzles were repetitive, and the level design is frustrating to navigate. Probably my biggest disappointment this gen.

Returnal for me is number one game here. Near perfection.

@Toot1st To me something that has proper skill checks and challenges. This doesn't.