Markatron84

First order of business: put a process in place to ensure that final evolutions of starter Pokémon aren't terrible. Quaquaval is an abomination.

@Maxz CODn't have said it better myself.

I think I'm nearing the end of Skyward Sword HD. I've enjoyed it overall, but I have notes:

• I hate the boss fights against The Imprisoned. His feet frequently block your view of what's going on.
• There is a lot of backtracking to do fetch quests in this game.
• I'm currently in the midst of a collectathon in Faron Woods and am not relishing the idea of (presumably) having to do two more in the other locations.

I'll also be playing Pokémon Champions, because I'm always playing Pokémon Champions.

@Anti-Matter my God you're cool.

The free upgrade is a good gesture. I personally felt that the game's upgrade/levelling system was grossly counter-intuitive so I fell off it after about 8 hours. Good news for Pipistrello fans though.

I've played about half an hour of Kingdom Hearts in my entire life so I'm no expert, but... fourth game?

Off the top of my head I can think of - even excluding Kingdom Hearts IV - seven Kingdom Hearts games.

Mario Sunshine - in my opinion - is the epitome of a 6/10 game. It's got flashes of greatness, it looks nice and the music slaps... but it's so unpolished and finicky and I could be playing countless better Mario games, let alone the countless better 3D platformers that aren't Mario games.

I've spent over 40 years actively trying to avoid Tiger handhelds. One time, there was one discarded on the pavement and I walked into traffic so as to not get too close to it

True story.

They look great. I just don't need them.

@roy130390 Quality mode: 1080p/30fps
Performance mode: 240p/60fps (upscaled from 120p)

@ojisan @OrtadragoonX I'm sure they'll get around to those eventually... 👀

@dskatter Did Bethesda ever fix the memory leak in Skyrim on PS3? Wait your turn 🤣

@LastFootnote I aim to please!

@LastFootnote The Eternal Wait for Goldman.

My money's on Grezzo. After the 3DS versions of Ocarina and Majora, the Link's Awakening remake and Echoes of Wisdom, I'm pretty sure Nintendo deems Grezzo's hands as safe when it comes to Zelda, and I'm inclined to agree.

Aside from Pokémon Champions and Forza Horizon 6, I'll be playing The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD.

I started it a couple of days ago. I'm about 8 or 9 hours in and have played exclusively in handheld mode so far. Controlling the sword on the right analogue stick took some getting used to, but having that complete control over your sword really opens up some interesting mechanics for puzzles and combat; it's really cool.

It's also interesting to see what later became big aspects of Breath of the Wild - degradable equipment and the stamina bar - pop up in this game.

Edit: I also got back into Tetris 99 over the past week or so; thanks for reminding me @jfp 😃

I doubt we'll see or hear anything else Ocarina of Time related until after Fortune's Weave is out.

@datamonkey That it is!

Can't wait for the next Mass Effect game, set in a galaxy populated entirely by straight cisgender human males 👍🙄

It was a great Direct that provided a wealth of information about the game but it kinda put me off playing it, at least any time soon.

I was getting overwhelmed and overloaded with information just watching it, which tells me I'm not currently in the right mindset to play a game with this many systems and mechanics and more going on. That could change later on - I did manage to play and finish Three Houses - but as of right now I think I'm going to sit this one out.

Also: elephants! Mario Wonder walked so that Fortune's Weave could run.

I'm abstaining as they're all equally terrible this week. Good thing DK is less of an afterthought for Nintendo these days.

I'll say it:

What's up with Fabio's bonk eye?

I wonder which AI model wrote that PR statement 👀

Man, I could go for some Wind Waker HD right about now...

Tied in user score with Cory in the House. Nice 👍

@Kidfunkadelic83 or Dillon. Not enough armadillos in games nowadays for my liking.

In that case, can we get some people on snowboards and jet skis in the third Mario film?

Please?

Yes.

Very much yes.

I found Kaze and the Wild Masks generic looking, unpleasant to play and criminally overrated. But I'm in the minority there.

Everybody go play The Rogue Prince of Persia though. Now that is a bloody good 2D platformer.

@UpsideDownRowlet It's bloody amazing, I love it.

I want to give this beta a try just to see how the game runs on Switch 2. I don't even particularly enjoy COD multiplayer but I have to know.

How in the hell is Final Fantasy X 25 years old?

The North American / European one is fugly. Or "absolute fuggers", which is what I've just decided the cool kids say.

I reckon I could be swayed by a new good plastic guitar game. I never really gelled with the drums in Guitar Hero or Rock Band (nor can I sing, as my neighbours can probably attest to) but I used to thoroughly enjoy the guitar side of those games.

@gcunit @Aquinas I'm pretty sure at this point, Sony is loading surplus PS2s onto a rocket and launching them in whatever direction into space.

"Nice one, lads! That's another million."

@Aquinas I believe in Sony's latest quarterly earnings call they stated that lifetime sales of PS2 hardware sit at approximately eleventy bazillion units.

Edit: No, wait. It's now being reported that they found some more between the sofa cushions. It's now infinity wazillion.

@NielsNL If I wasn't exited for the game before, I am now.

@FrylockJ Is 8/10 a negative review?

@Olliemar28 Quick heads up: one of the cons says "A few licensed music tracks might have be nice". I assume that should say "been". 🙂

I have put an obscene amount of time into Jurassic World Evolution 1, 2 and 3, but - as with all of Frontier's games - I got kind of sick of how they're constantly nickel and diming with DLCs. JWE3 even had a load of species missing that were present in JWE2; they're adding them back in for free but it's happening at a snail's pace.

I've recently moved onto Prehistoric Kingdom, which is in early access. It's a little rough around the edges and doesn't have as many species as JWE, but it's way cheaper, updated fairly regularly for free and has a much wider variety of animals. Plus it's going for palaeontological accuracy; JWE is largely beholden to the Jurassic Park/World licence and aesthetics so most of the animals are - in my opinion - monstrosities 🤣

007 First Light still going strong and deservedly so. IOI really hit it out of the park with that game.

@The21zonz the end times, most likely.

@Kilroy a random floating rail that, get this, also disappears.

For that authentic Sonic Frontiers feel, the statue pops out of existence if you move too far away from it.

The recent demo convinced me to buy Yoshi and the Mysterious Book (@mlt: Mlem), so I have been and will be playing that. I'm only about 2 hours in, but what a charming and relaxing game it is so far.

Aside from that, Pokémon Champions and chipping away at seasonal objectives in Forza Horizon 6.

Edit: I just spent the last two and a half hours in Horizon 6 scouring the map for - and driving down - every last road. Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing with my life.

@AussieMcBucket If you think that's bad, you should've been there for the wedding night. Hoo boy.

Oooh, Mrs Markatron84 is going to go nuts for this. She loves Stardew Valley and is always crocheting something.

@Krlozgod don't forget Altaria, that goes from dragon/flying to dragon/fairy,, gaining one hell of a useful immunity.

Expect this season to be dominated by Pokémon that lose the flying type when they Mega Evolve.

Downloaded the demo, did 24 discoveries for the flower thing (which I named Flowow) and stopped. Not because I didn't like it, but because I loved it.

I'll be picking this up, for sure.

@mlt (tips hat)

@stinkyx

Making a team from scratch, or using your favorites despite them sucking requires a lot more effort and results in a majority of losses, but is way more fun, IMHO.

This. I have a meta team that I use, but I do like experimenting with different lineups to test out strategies or see if there are any Pokémon that are not considered competitively viable that might be unsung heroes. This is how I fell in love with Toxapex; I've had that little guy fend off entire teams almost single handedly on a few occasions.

Fantastic. I've heard and read mixed things on this game so a demo is extremely welcome. I shall gobble it up as soon as it's available.

(Yoshi sticking his tongue out noise)

I tried to touch a Game Key Card earlier and my hand phased right through it.