"voice actors will dynamically transition between English and Japanese depending on what the context demands"

Thank god, I thought it was a weakness of Infinite Wealth having to choose between one language or the other and it just felt kind of jarring to me.

I liked the first game so will look forward to getting this at some point when I can get the game and some of the inevitable DLC a bit cheaper.

I struggle with the creative side on these games though and the console controls don't help. I had to give up on Planet Coaster 2 as designing coasters was just too fiddly and trying to create rides that actually worked felt like such a drag.

Hopefully the campaign mode has plenty of unique parks and missions. Some of the levels in Jurassic World Evolution 3 were pretty clever but then felt like they kind of gave up once you got to 3* on them and went for more generic targets.

@Eadgar The Burial at Sea DLC is great so I hope you enjoy it!

As for me, I’ve just started Cairn which has been magnificent (even if it take me a ridiculous number of goes to finish the 8th training route..)

I'd never played Sonic CD before Origins and I don't feel like I had missed out. Weird mechanics for sure.

Sonic 1 is just brutal at times; Sonic 2 I think has the perfect balance for all out speed and level design; but Sonic 3 and Knuckles will always be the GOAT... even if the iconic music for that level has gone.

@lindos As a fellow leftie I have to say I’ve never even thought of needing the joystick controls swapped around! Maybe that’s because we normally have to be ambidextrous to get by normally 😁

@GirlVersusGame Given the fact that the title is a play on the word eugenics and based on the process of creating “superior” genetics, then it seems sort of right to include something showing that the process does include downsides..

Urgh, gutted to hear there is so much guff in the game.

I loved Remake and got the platinum for it, with the combat shining on hard difficulty. I got burnt out during Rebirth as I was intending to get the platinum again but could not face having do everything again, and it really soured my experience of it.

Sammy leaving after the demo;

@FinneasGH It’s pretty easy to save scum in KCD2 with a quit/reload though and the auto saving is reasonably generous through main missions.

Two Point Museum is great though; possibly my favourite of the series. Some fun sounding (paid for) DLC has come out since I finished the game too.

@Mr-Cage I recently completed KCD2 and it’s a top 5 all timer for me. I skipped KCD1, partly as it was supposed to be a little rough but they then dropped the next gen update after I started the second.

I fully intend on going back to play it at some point but wish I’d played the first one already, particularly as it might feel tough going back to the rougher UI and mechanics.

But you can absolutely play KCD2 and fully enjoy it by itself.

I didn’t think a game would come close to the scale of BG3 this gen but this surpassed it and I think was possibly the better game too. It should at least have been best RPG over Clair Obscur!

@Hyena_socks I was more than happy to “save scum” with the quit to menu and reload when needed rather than relying on auto saves or saviour schnapps.

The combat takes some getting used to still but it relies on you levelling up Henry and getting some good gear as much as it relies on you getting the hang of it.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns is a great game. I don’t particularly like deck building games and I’m not a Marvel fanboy but loved the game.

GTA Online was my favourite online gaming experience but mostly because I played with loads of people from another forum rather than randoms.

Completing heists with the same people was great but that time of my life is well and truly gone now.

Dave the Diver was silly good fun so I'm hoping for more of the same here.

@GamingGod I can easily have a vision in my head but find it really difficult to implement. Some amazing designs on the subreddits for these games though (I imagine mostly on PC though..)

I really enjoyed Planet Zoo, mostly for career mode as I enjoy the management side of things but suck at the creativity side of designing landscapes and large enclosures. It's one of the reasons that I bounced off Planet Coaster 2 as I struggled with designing rides.

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@Dodoo Who knows if it means anything for the 4th game. Borderlands 2 released DLC 5 years after the game released to tie into the 3rd game, while Mass Effect 2 had the Arrival DLC to tie into ME3 (but with only two years between the games).

A good way of building some hype and getting people playing again.

Star Wars Outlaws is a real 7/10 experience but the bits it does well are great fun. The sort of game that would have been much more fun as a linear experience than needing to fill fairly empty open worlds with unnecessary guff.

Hard mode isn’t hard… apart when you go straight into it from normal mode.

Getting the bad ending on hard mode wasn’t difficult but getting the whole plethora of other trophies on normal was.

Nice review. I loved Returnal so this sounds like a nice progression of that; useful and interesting new additions and new aesthetics but with the underlying gameplay similar. I still think Returnal had some of the best movement of any game I’ve played.

There’s also nothing better in this sort of game than having a run when you’re in the zone, have a perfect weapon and ability load out, and the level layout works in your favour.

Now I’m a dad gamer I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get into this as I can mostly only player in 60-90 min goes but the new additions make it sound a bit easier to do so.

The lack of Outer Wilds in this list is borderline criminal.

Such a beautiful game and I loved the different planets and some of the concepts they came up with for them. Learning to fly that damn ship (and, more importantly, land it) took a fair bit of effort.

Landing on the tiny station orbiting the sun for that trophy was an utter nightmare too!

It sucks but from reading other parts of that post when it came out;

1) They have a lead translator who has been there 10 years (i.e. from the start) so it's not completely replacing the team.. for now.
2) If they're in the very early stages of whatever they're next making, they probably don't need two people for the job currently.

I imagine there's a fair bit of downsizing of teams after the release of a game as studios, especially of this size, can't keep an entire team on standby for their next game.

I certainly don't make any apologies for it but it sounds pretty rubbish and it seems so tough out there for people in the industry at the present time, even more so if even part of peoples' work can be "replaced" by AI.

I was far too young to be playing RE1 when it came out as I was only 8 but a mate had it and we were enthralled. And back in the days of memory cards he knew a guy who had unlocked the rocket launcher so got a copy of the save to play with that.

When I borrowed it I remember being so scared when the giant snake first appeared that I turned the console off

I admired your guide though @Quintumply as for the Lost Souls yours was in a sensible order to make it easy to complete, and not just a list of where to find and complete them like many were.

Excellent games... if you can get past the swinging hippo tail section in Lion King anyway.

@Metonymy To be fair, @graymamba didn’t specify which year when he said GOTY.

I've got it downloaded to play at some point but as a gamer dad these days I need to find the right time to start another 100hr epic.

@johncalmc It's Friday Night every night in the calmc household.

@johncalmc Which photo??

@Vermines Enjoy! I still think Returnal is one of the best games of the generation but beating that first boss takes some effort.

Definitely one I’m keen to finally play though, although probably not at the £50 price point.

A 9?? So you’re saying this is better than Baby Steps??? /s

@Kairuuu Two different speed run trophies is mad. I didn’t get the platinum for HK and looks like I won’t get it here either!

I loved Hollow Knight and it’s one a “white whale” platinum trophy for me as I could never complete the pantheons.

I adored the world and exploration, and though the platforming and combat felt great.

Very looking forward to this at some point!

Just give us the Expedition 60 game we all want. SMASH!

@LiamCroft Any idea on how it runs on the base PS5 given there are frame rate drop offs with the beefed up machine?

@Truegamer79 I always forget this was a PS2 game with how good it looked. That said, MGS2 was a pretty good looking game on that console too.

It also can’t possibly have been on PS2 as there is no way this game is twenty years old 💀

@Oram77 I mean, you could try actually playing it.

It’s one of my favourite games of all time. The artwork and music are sublime, and I loved the sense of exploration in the game. The combat felt really tight to me with some excellent bosses and the platforming also felt great.

Can’t wait to finally play this!

@Czar_Khastik No worries, sorry I forgot to tag you in my reply!

I’ve had to drop things down to story mode to just plough through these bosses now as I just want it done. And while the Maelle glass cannon build helps speed things up it takes even more of the pleasure of the combat away.

@get2sammyb I’m almost there now with one trophy to get but honestly the grind has kind of soured my experience of the game somewhat. Getting a character to lvl99 in particular has been a chore.

So many areas are just constant boss rush setups though which is fun for a bit but gets somewhat tedious after a while, especially if you get KO’d after spending 20+ mins on one fight.

After playing so much Yakuza, having a Japanese dub with subtitles doesn’t bother me.

However, in the first game it did feel I was missing out a little as there were no subtitles or anything for some of the general chatter that NPCs made as you moved around areas which felt a bit strange to me.

@nessisonett That’s the real game.

I found Evil Genius 2 really disappointing. The fact you only own one lair is rubbish too as any early design mistakes are tricky to rectify. Quite repetitive too.

Damn, I reckon I’ve been a PS+ subscriber since around 2013 now when they used to give away loads of games a month on PS3.

The only benefit to closing it down was that it made me finally cash out my points. A nice £30 for free.

A shame I didn’t realise some of my points had expired though..

This game will be dining off the Jason Schreier seal of approval if nothing else. His comments on the game are what’s had it on my radar though but this review confirms some of the worries I have about it.

Some odd comments about the scoring of the review though; it partly shows why numerical score are nonsense but also the mentality that anything not given a 9 or 10 is utter garbage.

The original game was weird; I thought the overall story and premise was quite neat. But then it seemed like there weee only about four types of enemy and three weapon types, and with only a small number of planets to land on you ended up with a ridiculous number of quests and side quests within seconds of landing on each one.

Some fun companions though and their side quests were some of the highlights.

Inscryption is an excellent game. Such a crazy game that is spoilt by knowing too much about it but well worth it. A really tough but satisfying platinum too.

Dredge is a great chill game but also pretty dark at times. I thought the minimal story fell a little flat at the end and there was a bit too much faff for the platinum but still a good game.

Knights and Bikes is a gem. I played it solo where you can switch between characters but it would be amazing played couch co-op. So many neat little nods to Cornish life if you know the area too.

@QiaraIris Next year? It was three years between the initial release and final DLC for the last game (on PC). Don’t expect that definitive edition until the end of the decade!