Thrillho

@Sorteddan My approach to Tip Toe is to launch myself for the line when one or two squares from the end.

Better to go for it and miss out than chance it with the pack.

Hoarders (and Egg Scramble to a lesser extent) are about not losing rather than winning for me. Once two teams get ahead in Hoarders, I find it best to stop the losing team getting a ball rather than trying to get one for yourself.

Rock ‘n’ Roll I find it easiest to block the balls from the teams to the side as you can press it against a side wall making it harder to free.

Hollow Knight costumes need to happen.

Fall Guys was the sort of game I rolled my eyes when it was first announced but the more I’ve seen of it, the more fun it looks. It’s also the perfect kind of game to throw on PS+ in my opinion.

I had PS+ since PS3 and it does feel like decreasing value.

Online used to be free but I got it for the great free games and online storage (after my PS3 got YLOD but was resurrected).

It wasn’t a problem for me then when you needed it for online but they’ve now bumped up the price and, in my opinion, the freebies are a bit of a mixed bag.

Especially strange when you can play Fortnite without PS+

@ApostateMage Having just replayed TLOU1 the trophy list is such a chore as it requires a second play through not only to get the NG+ but also upgrade all weapons/stats fully. The collectibles are pretty well hidden, optional conversations easily missed, and the jokes sometimes don’t trigger.

And then on top of that you’ve got the multiplayer ones too. Yeesh.

Jeez, I replayed the game in first person mode and found that disorientating enough (I couldn’t drive on first person mode at all).

If true, at least they’re doing something new with it. Crazy that it will make it onto three consecutive console generations though.

@Bioth Jurassic World costs so little I’d say it’s definitely worth a go, especially if you’ve played Tropico 5 (that has started to come up in sales regularly too now).

There’s only a handful of levels in JW so you spend lots of time on the parks before jumping to another level. They each have their own quirks to mix it up. The tasks you get during levels are mostly interesting to do as well, and I liked the aspect of taking time to design a cool enclosure with monorails, viewing platforms etc.

My biggest gripe was that the layout of levels could limit what you could do quite a bit but it’s not a huge frustration.

And just to say, Surviving Mars is good but tough. I’ve only had successful runs when starting in a resource rich area and having the setting that gives double factory output for the same resource input. If you like hardcore sims than give it a go but it’s another one that comes up in sales regularly now.

@grahamd I wrote some thoughts on the game recently after picking it up in a sale earlier this year;

https://www.pushsquare.com/forums/retro_and_other_gaming/user_impressionsreviews_thread?start=740#reply-748

tl;dr It's a fun improvement on Tropico 5 but with plenty of the same flaws.

Jurassic World Evolution is good fun for a chilled out strategy/simulation game.

Surviving Mars is also in the sale and enjoyable but brutal as one mistake can utterly ruin your play through. The "mysteries" are a neat feature that make each play different and the Green Planet DLC, which allows you to terraform Mars, makes the game even more fun and gives it more of an end point.

11

I was a long term subscriber to the Official Playstation Magazine so played a lot of random demos.

I hope the rest of their games fare better than Biomutant. The game’s official twitter account hasn’t posted since September 2019 and the last news article on the official website is from December 2018!

I own ten of the albums from those tracks..

I’m slightly surprised they haven’t gone for an updated playlist (or maybe even an option to have the old or a new one) but I guess they’re going all in on the nostalgia value.

It was kind of weird to have different music on the phone version they released a few years ago though.

New game modes? For Civ???

I find it nnnngh so annoying ach.

Nier grah Automata was the same huh.

To be honest, it’s the cheesy voice acting that puts me off as much as anything!

The KR0 soundtrack is just wonderful. Big ups to the Bedquilt Ramblers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81ZDfujSCkU

And that scene in Act III really is so special.

The soundtracks to the first couple of games were almost better than the games themselves.

And seeing as this one gives the name for the doc..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt9bkgRQbLs

Wait, where the hell did Carbuncle come from? And why does it look so weird??

Paging @RogerRoger

I'd like to say Biomutant too but who even knows what's going on with that game now; the game's twitter account hasn't been update since August and the last news article on the game's own site is from 2018!

@get2sammyb It's not just you; Kotaku have gone on about it before and recently had an article "The Year in Tiny Video Game Text".

I can't say I've ever found it to be a significant problem. I think God of War was one of the worst culprits I remember from recent times though.

@KingPev Agreed

40% of Civ 6 seems crazy seeing as it's only been out for weeks. Just a shame the DLC isn't equally as discounted..

This is still the most fun I've ever had with a game online. Playing with a huge group of people from another forum I use was just brilliant fun and completing all of the online heists with the same group was equally awesome. I'd never be able to dedicate time to do something like that again though..

Excellent. This was one of the most interesting Telltale games so I’m delighted to hear its back.

I hope the new developers learn to focus on each series rather than spread themselves across too much at once. And a wait or under 6 months between episodes 1&2 of this will be a big improvement on the first game!

Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey has particular memories for me. My family aren't gamers but it really captured my dad's imagination as well as my uncle's (who was staying with us at the time).

We used to sit taking it in turns at the game and all found the verbal commands (and farts) hilarious.

How did @Quintumply manage to mention the PSone demo that came with the console and not mention the most iconic bit of it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCtZIlolG6w

Also, Adidas Power Soccer was great. There was a very random "cheat" to give you female commentators (who came out with same grade A cringey lines).

That's quite a tank in price for MediEvil already.

Count me in.

@johncalmc always seems to be reviewing the games I've got my eye on, you lucky swine.

I'm a little disappointed the DLC isn't included in the console version seeing as it has already been released and is, in fact, ready to purchase on day one as well. Have you had a go with these or just the base version?

I've played Civ5 so many times on my MacBook that I know the game inside out. The complete overhaul of the game mechanics looks a bit overwhelming but I will be giving it a go for sure.

Surviving Mars is on there and is a neat strategy/city builder game. The Green Planet DLC is excellent but the first main DLC pack less worth it. I previously ended up getting both as the season pass worked out cheaper than getting just the latter.

@LiamCroft Do you know how the social features will change the game long term? If I pick the game up in 6 months, is traffic on the 12 lane road built through the middle of the map going to be more dangerous than the BTs?

@johncalmc With regards to your last point in the cons; does the main campaign play out the same every time or just with minor variations?

A bit of Yakuza Kiwami 2 and MLB: The Show as well. I’m quite enjoying the latter but am playing on an easy setting at the moment.

@Powerpellet In short, it's the only sport in the world that can be played for twenty five days and still end in a draw. Wonderful stuff.

@get2sammyb But which goal???

Nice breakdown of the game modes though. I quite like the sport and went to see Phillies @ Mets last month while on holiday.

Let’s Go Mets!

Has anyone been unfortunate enough to actually pay full price for Witcher 3 in the last few years??

Oh god, I had the main track from Tropico 5 stuck in my head for ages after playing the game so I’m glad to see this hasn’t changed! Hopefully the highly annoying voiceovers have been toned down a bit though.

@johncalmc Is each level a completely new map in the campaign? I liked that T5 split you between two islands through the campaign and that you would go back to them for some continuity.

Pretty chuffed with MLB as I was looking at buying a version the other day. Will not be surprised to see it changed before though.

@Nyne11Tyme You can expect to pay £60-80 for a pair of Move controllers though in the UK so the value is a bit relative.

That section of the Lion King jumping between the hippos tails is still harder than the entire Dark Souls trilogy put together.

@Hootnoodle Good luck! I admit I had to drop the difficulty for the last Valkyrie 😕

Banner Saga 2. I rattled through the first game and it’s great to be able to play them back to back.

I just finished the last of training missions which was pretty tough but nice bonus trophies to have. Not that I’ll ever platinum these games anyway..

I tend to get new games physical with all digital purchases being sales.

The only exception being The Division 2 which was a bit of an impulse buy but my PS4 also goes through phases of randomly ejecting discs. This is annoying for any game but especially one with such a strong online component.

@Rob_230 I don't think it's possible to buy a game that doesn't have Troy or Nolan in it

Tropico 5 was a solid PS+ freebie and one I played a fair bit. The gameplay was fun enough but a bit shallow at times and you could suddenly have your economy go to shot for no seeming reason.

@Cutmastavictory Oh god, the music was so annoyingly catchy. The voiceover stuff really got on my nerves though.

@darkswabber That's a random place to start with the series.

I've played Zero and Kiwami so far and both are brilliant and bonkers. Kiwami 2 is in the backlog too..

Woah, who knew youtube could make you seasick?

Edith Finch is great and a perfect choice for a PS+ freebie.

I’m kind of surprised they haven’t been putting PSVR games on since they dropped the PS3/Vita games but I guess they don’t want to put the biggest sellers out there for free but equally don’t want to put an utter dross game out there instead.

Huh, it kind of felt like the second half of this article is missing.

Anyhoo, not every game can reinvent the wheel or define a generation and that’s fine. But when these top games are commonly 50-100hr experiences, I want to stick to the good stuff. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with Days Gone but with so many 8-10s out there I’ve yet to play, it’s going to be a “maybe in a sale” for me.

Particularly when I’m playing Hollow Knight which is a stunning game and cost just over a fiver.