@somnambulance Haha, we can but dream.

I've played almost all of them but that is a ridiculously good lineup.

I'm ashamed of the fact I only learned of this game's existence today. It looks fantastic.

@Elodin It's really good, it makes the weather patterns way more interesting. Rain, fog, and sandstorms don't feel as artificial because they last much longer and don't just disappear when you enter a different part of the map.

It's also just cool seeing Night City transform visually depending on the weather type.

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I can try to answer them.

Insanely addictive game.

I thought Onimusha was nailed on for my personal GOTY until Phantom Blade Zero came along. It's been a fun couple of months!

God help me if this turns into a three-way battle with GTA 6 involved. Might have to just spin a wheel.

@Bob_Tempura I can't believe I've seen someone mention Out Loud and On the Painted Desert.

One of my favourite BBS tracks, breaks my heart that it's not available through streaming!

@themightyant Shockingly, I didn't buy anything in October — all my time was taken up with reviews (and The Witcher 3 Remastered dropping right at the end of September certainly didn't help).

@Fiendish-Beaver Thanks for pointing it out!

@jakeones Yeah I think the enemies are noticeably more aggressive on Hellwalker, to the point where being surrounded by groups of them can get you killed faster than you realise.

It's not like they never stop attacking, but on Wayfarer and Pathbreaker, you get obvious breaks in between their combos. The gaps aren't as pronounced on Hellwalker so you're pushed harder to parry and dodge with precise timing to make those gaps yourself.

@jakeones The majority of my playthrough was on Pathbreaker but I tested Hellwalker (and Wayfarer) a few times both out of curiosity and for the purposes of this article.

I thought this was a topic worth expanding on because I still see so many people sharing their concerns that the game will be too demanding for their tastes.

If anyone's got any specific questions about the difficulty let me know and I can try to answer them.

@Hyena_socks Yeah ultimately I think a different approach was the right move. There are obviously so many unique stories you can tell based in that universe.

If we'd carried on with Lucy or something it would have subtracted from season 1 being a fantastic standalone series. Then it's a question of how much further does it go, and you could end up with the classic Netflix thing where shows just get worse as the seasons pile up.

@dskatter Haha, got there in the end. Thanks for pointing it out!

@Golem25

@throwmeaname The Visions do feel a little bit out of place, ultimately. Like the review says, they're explained to a limited extent lore-wise, but they're undoubtedly fan service at the end of the day — a leftover from the mobile game.

I could look past them being gimmicky because they make up a really cool progression system, but I can see other players thinking they're a bit immersion-breaking.

As for the characters, I think they do have a spark — but they're just never fleshed out to the extent that they could be. They just come across as very one-dimensional too often in the main story beats.

But like I say, there's something there. They're not bad characters by any stretch, but I don't think they measure up to the classics.

@JustBusiness I was thinking about this earlier. Is there really anything stopping CDPR from eventually doing a second expansion?

It's already got a new DLC for The Witcher 3 coming, so a similar project that bridges the gap between 2077 and Cyberpunk 2 doesn't seem at all impossible.

I suppose it just depends on whether they have the manpower to do it. TW3's DLC is mostly being manned by a separate studio.

@BeyondKnight My PS5's tracker says 47 hours but I'm pretty sure it was closer to 55 or 60 on my save file. That time includes doing all of the side quests I could find.

If you play on the easy difficulty you'd probably cut that down to 40-50. And on hard it might be stretching towards 70 purely because of how much longer battles can take.

Side quests are generally decent, with their own little stories. They aren't overused, either.

@CastelloGG Unfortunately I'm not sure — I played the game in Japanese and although I did try the English dub, I never used a Vision during that time.

I think the Visions might always be in Japanese. I feel like I saw some English dub gameplay where Cloud's summon was still speaking Japanese.

@somnambulance Yeah, I like it better than Elliot, but that's mostly down to me preferring turn-based RPGs in this style.

@SuperSilverback I don't know for sure but retroactive Trophies from demos are so stupidly rare that I doubt it.

Definitely a pet peeve of mine!

If anyone's got any questions about the game or the review, let me know and I can try to answer them.

I think this is probably my favourite HD-2D RPG Square Enix has released!

@carlos82 It's true!

Might be time to boot this one up!

This Justice track is really good.

@LuigiDude96 Please read the whole article...

@get2sammyb

This just feels like another exercise in pandering to Xbox's most hardcore fans. It's been the direction ever since Sharma came in because they know that the brand's reputation was in the gutter.

Cancelling Gears on PS5 was an obvious indication of this; it was never completely about the sales, it was about clawing back mindshare and making a statement.

A lot of positive energy, especially online, bleeds out from hardcore users. It's the same with PlayStation. If you get your most passionate customers on side, you can steadily shift how the brand is perceived.

Having said all of that, if Xbox is somehow taking business advice from people like this, they really are screwed. I'd be saying the same if it was Sony.

@mookysam

@MasterChiefWiggum I agree with your perspective, but I think we're asking too much of an industry that's already more than happy to cut thousands upon thousands of jobs and further line the pockets of CEOs as a result.

Unfortunately, I think there's only one end goal for people like Sweeney: show the suits that by fully embracing the "magic" of AI, they can reduce paid jobs to the absolute minimum and deliver maximum profit.

And let's not kid ourselves; as customers, we won't see a penny of this cost-cutting make its way back to us.

@themightyant I've made a note of this, it's a great idea for the end of the month!

Sorry this poll's a bit late, there were complications with the schedule! But at least the delay has (maybe) given people more time to catch up with all these games.

@Damage99 Yeah if you do Norgan first you'll end up overpowered for the Lost Rites dungeons as the Norgan equipment goes far beyond what you need to complete them (unless you're playing on hard mode).

But the Lost Rites dungeons also vary in difficulty. Some are meant to be tackled in the main game while others seem to encourage you to find some decent Norgan gear.

@CosmicJester The most recent patches (including today's) reshape and add to a lot of gameplay mechanics.

The new dungeons, the Lost Rites, are part of the DLC, as are the new skills and upgrades.

@Futureshark Gameplay wise it's still very much DD2, so if you didn't like the formula before, nothing has really changed on that front.

But performance has been improved significantly.

@mightyquin As soon as you can meet Brant in the pub, you can ask him about it. He'll give you a new quest and you just take it from there. So it's available really, really early.

Unfortunately I'm not sure how it works with the Unmoored World, my save was New Game+ but it wasn't at the end of the story.

@Hyena_socks You're definitely best off waiting until you've got near endgame equipment from the base game. Otherwise the enemies will be insanely tanky.

You can give it a shot much earlier and try to scrape together Norgan weapons and armour, but it'd be very difficult to get a foothold.

@AhmadSumadi As far as I know, this isn't treated like a re-release, just a DLC. So there's no new Trophy list for the base game, just the expansion itself.

@Nepp67 I've tried it but I didn't use it for the vast majority of my time with the DLC.

It seems to pump up enemy stats significantly, and rearrange combat encounters to some extent.

For me the DLC difficulty curve felt nice and rewarding without it, but I can see more hardcore players getting really stuck in.

If anyone's got any questions about the DLC let me know and I can try to answer them.

Dark Arisen honestly went above and beyond my expectations. Amazing expansion, and like the review says, it comes close to feeling like its own game.

Based on this, I'd definitely let Kinoshita have a crack at Dragon's Dogma 3.

If anyone's got any questions about the base game, the new stuff, or the review, let me know and I'll try to answer them.

I'm still addicted to Most Wanted, by the way. If you enjoy Ghost's combat system as much as I do, it's brilliant fun — and it's great to play as Jin again!

@crossbit This remaster actually has an option where the game will calculate arrow damage based on your character's defence, so they're not quite so deadly if you enable that.

It's crazy to think that in the original game, arrows just dealt flat damage regardless of your character's strength. No wonder people feared the archers.

... But even with the new option enabled, arrows still do sooooo much damage because the enemy's fire rate is still insanely fast. You need to prioritise archers all the time.

@A-steak-with-ketchup Why bother when you could just wait for the PS7 remake!

@chadyboy I'm almost certain those frame rate drops, the ones that happen when quest checkpoints are reached, are to do with the autosave system.

It's an annoying hitching issue that's been there since Complete Edition. Crazy that it's back.

@Ravix As you suggest, there are so many variables to consider, especially when it comes to frame pacing and the like.

But I think generally speaking, the divide in reports here is so vast that there has to be something going on with the game itself.

@Rich33 Yeah, I get where you're coming from. I agree that a continuation of the Origins-style formula is probably the best way for the series to appeal to a wider audience.

It'll be really interesting to see if there's an Origins 2 in the works that carries on through the Three Kingdoms story. But then we're in the territory of a direct sequel, which obviously isn't the best way to branch out.

I think the future of Dynasty Warriors is a really interesting topic.

I'm in a very strange spot with this DLC. I ended up loving Crimson Desert but the thought of an entirely new map with loads of new gameplay systems makes me feel queasy. Maybe I've just had my fill.

@Rich33 I also loved Origins but I think this is more a case of Koei Tecmo testing the waters for remasters and the like.

Origins broke records for them so I suppose it makes sense to see whether the same kind of audience shows interest in lower budget projects like this.